ANNE COLLINS Anne Collins writes poetry and creative non-fiction. Her most recent book is collection of poetry and prose with Spanish themes titled Listening to the Deep Song (Bright South press, 2022). Her previous poetry collections are How to Belong (2019); The Language of Water (2014), Seasoned with Honey (2008) a 4-poet anthology; and The Season of Chance (2005). Another collection of poetry and prose is titled My Friends, This Landscape (2011). Anne lives in nipaluna (Hobart) lutruwita (Tasmania). For more information go to https://annecollins.com.au/
The Missing Zero My poem about Time was published online. After the elation – deflation, when I discovered a minor typo not seen before, a missing zero. Too late said the editor and fair enough. But I was then astonished to learn this zero was missing from the first draft. Right from the start it went AWOL yet my brain kept seeing it there standing to attention with the other two zeros. Draft after draft, my brain kept telling my eye it was seeing something that was in fact invisible on the page and more so on the screen.
Once again, I’d fallen into the dreaded pit of proofreading perils that shows no mercy. Is there some kind of catharsis in confessing to the flaw behind the glass of the computer screen? Is there any point in hoping that readers’ brains too will see the absent zero as if it were there? Is the absence any less real when it is virtual? It was little consolation to read of the famous biographer lamenting that the only Greek word in his book was wrong. I know how he felt. And this was in the pre-internet era when publishers employed dedicated proofreaders and editors instead of leaving it up to the ill-fated poet who after writing, revising and re-checking, can’t see the spaces for the zeros. I’ve been known to see typos when they weren’t there.
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© Anne Collins 2024 January POETRY & WRITING © liveencounters.net
