When to Quit a Poem?

Years ago, a student mentioned to me that he worked in a Japanese restaurant. I was a poetry graduate student at the time and knew this inexpensive restaurant very well.

When I mentioned being surprised at not ever seeing him in the restaurant, he said it’s because he had to stay in the back. He said he’d been working for years in the kitchen — waiting to get promoted to waiter — and the owner always promoted the Asian workers. Evidently, the owner did not think a white waiter would look authentic in her restaurant. Of course, I guess she did not mind having mostly non-Japanese waiters. Maybe she thought no one would notice?

My student was absolutely enraged as he told me this story.

I wondered why — when there were so many other restaurants where this boy could have worked — that he chose to keep working at this one restaurant.

Did he think the owner would change her mind? Was the pay that much better than the other 100 restaurants around town?

The larger question is when do any of us to decide to quit?

Now some folks have trouble with the word ‘quit’ as meaning we’re losers. Well, to quit one thing means to make room for something new. You can view the word however you want. I chose to view it as making room for a new adventure.

But that doesn’t mean I always know when to quit.

When do you know to quit a poem? When do you know to quit a big project?

And, no, I don’t plan to quit my job, 32 Poems or this blog!

Your thoughts?