At the suggestion of a fiction professor, I chose to study poetry for my undergrad capstone. Both of my two semesters of poetry classes started rough. Nothing came easily to me, and I
found myself floundering for several weeks. But both semesters ended on a high note, with some of my best work.
One week our professor passed around a collection of postcards collected from various museums. We were directed to choose one postcard to keep; we would then write a poem about the artwork depicted. I chose Gerhard Richter's Lesende. The poem would be another failure of the year, and it would not make it into my portfolio.
The postcard sat on my desk until I graduated and moved out of the dorms, then it followed me to my new home. I saw it every time I sat down to work. After five years, I finally returned to the poem. This time it, worked.
"Woman Reading in Light" was published on the Legible blog last month.
Don't give up on those failed poems, stories, and essays. Set them aside, give yourself space, but come back and see what you can salvage.