You have spent eons polishing that poem. Read it through until the words swim like spectres before your eyes and, finally, being satisfied with the results of your labour pressed publish. What a feeling of satisfaction at a job well done flows through one when one’s perfectly crafted words our out there for the great reading public to pour over. A few days later you sit down and reread your pearls of wisdom. Oops your writing which seemed to constitute perfection personified suddenly reveals imperfections.
To take an example from my own work. Below is my poem “Fire” rendered twice. The first rendering appeared on this blog, newauthoronline.com and the second (polished) rewrite can be found in “Dalliance; A Collection of Poetry and Prose”.

Fire As It Appeared On Newauthoronline:

“I have felt the fire at midnight’s hour

It kindles brightly and sinks within the hour.

I have gazed at embers dying fast

Looked into the future and gazed into the past

I have raked the ashes cold, felt the bleakness in my soul”.

Fire As Published in “Dalliance: A Collection of Poetry and Prose”:

“I have felt the fire’s power;
It kindles brightly and sinks within the hour.
I have watched the embers dying fast;
Looked into the future and gazed into the past.
I have raked the ashes cold, felt the bleakness in my soul”.

In the first rendering the word “hour appears in the first and second lines while, in the second (rewrite)it is replaced by “power” in the first line. Again, in the original version the word “gazed” appears in lines 3 and 4 while, in the poem as published in “Dalliance” it is changed (in line 3 to “watched”, with “gazed” shown in line 4 only. Word repetition has a place in poetry. However in “Fire” the utilisation of “hour” and “gazed” so close together served to render my poem less than perfect, hence the rewrite.
Most of my writing takes place during daylight when my brain is firing on all cylinders. “Fire” was, if memory serves written during late evening which may explain in part at least the excessive repetition employed in the poem. The lesson I draw from all this is the importance of writing when one’s brain is at it’s sharpest or, if writing does take place when sleep is calling put one’s creation to one side and revisit it when the mind is fresh. Finally reread, reread and reread again.

For “Fire” as it appeared on my blog please go to (http://newauthoronline.com/2015/03/14/fire/). For “Dalliance; A Collection of Poetry and Prose” please visit (http://www.amazon.com/Dalliance-collection-poetry-prose-Morris-ebook/dp/B00QQVJC7E).

Kevin