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The cadence decided what the climb meant before I did
No 7 — Climbing the Schillerkopf: a borrowed music, a pre-decided summit.
Jul 6
•
Adam Cairns
2
June 2026
Two lines reached for tears. The cancer was one line below.
No 6 — Prayers: the abstraction that reached past the thing.
Jun 29
•
Adam Cairns
9
5
One noun too many, and the rest of the poem stays in the drawer
No 5 — The knackerman: over-naming in two lines.
Jun 22
•
Adam Cairns
3
2
The comfort arrived before the grief did
No 4 — Little lady of Flores: consolation the poem hadn't earned.
Jun 15
•
Adam Cairns
3
5
The hand was on cold rock — then the speaker stepped out of the weather to explain
No 3 — Again: the speaker who contemplates instead of climbs.
Jun 8
•
Adam Cairns
1
My two weakest lines, at the two places the form shows them most
No 2 — Dusk, dusk: the reach for the universal, twice, at the seams.
Jun 1
•
Adam Cairns
1
2
1
May 2026
I autopsy my own failed poems. Here is the first.
No 1 — Thylacine, and the one line that explained too much.
May 25
•
Adam Cairns
6
4
5
Most writing about poetry shows you how poems succeed. This runs the other way.
A weekly autopsy of my own failed drafts, by named failure mode.
May 18
•
Adam Cairns
10
19
5
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