[noun] /ˌmɑː.dʒɪˈneɪ.li.ə/Notes made in the margins of a document or book.
Swings by Night
Samuel E. Blackburn“Swings by Night” by Samuel E. Blackburn turns the fun of the playground on its head. It uses dark imagery to imagine the terrifying world of a playground at night, when the children have all gone home, and the gloom and the moonlight have drained all the joy from the rides.
For our Marginalia series, we ask poets to take us behind the scenes into their revision process. Samuel shares his first and final drafts, with his own annotations on what he changed and why. In a Q&A at the end, he gives advice based on his own experiences of drafting and revising.
Tap a highlighted line to read the annotation.
First draft
Final draft
In conversation with Samuel
What advice would you give someone sitting down to write a first draft?
Don’t worry about form, conventions and poetic technicalities in the first draft. Focus on what you want to say. Somewhere in your gut there is an idea you’re trying to give form to, a unique perspective on something (perhaps something very ordinary) that only you possess. So take the time to understand what it is you’re trying to say, and give it a shape that does justice to your own unique perspective.
What advice would you give someone trying to turn a first draft into a final poem?
A tangible image is worth a thousand abstractions. I always find it helpful to devote a whole editing pass to simply hunting for abstract concepts and converting them into something more concrete. Sometimes the most mundane images can be the most vivid.
Another good tip is to avoid saying more than you have to. It can be tempting to waffle in the first few drafts, so be sure to ruthlessly remove any unnecessary parts from your final draft.
About the poet
Samuel E. Blackburn is a poet and fiction author from Scotland, UK. His poetry has been previously featured in Blue Unicorn magazine, Free the Verse and the Journal of Undiscovered Poets. “Swings by Night” was previously published in Blue Unicorn – Volume 49, Number 1 (Fall 2025).
