[noun] /ˌmɑː.dʒɪˈneɪ.li.ə/Notes made in the margins of a document or book.
UNDERPINNING
Lillian Navales RiveraLillian Navales Rivera’s “UNDERPINNING” began as a poem about the roads of her city. Over two and a half years of revision, it became a poem about the trans experience in those same streets. As Lillian tells it: “I think all my poems end up that way.” An earlier version, titled “INFRASTRUCTURE”, was first published in Sidlak’s The Mutien Marie Journal.
For our Marginalia series, we ask poets to take us behind the scenes into their revision process. Lillian shares her first and final drafts, with her own annotations on what she changed and why. In a Q&A at the end, she gives advice based on her own experiences of drafting and revising.
Tap a highlighted line to read the annotation.
First draft
Final draft
In conversation with Lillian
How much time passed between writing your first and final draft?
The work started as a draft in October 2023. I had just begun my sophomore year at university, and I didn’t have as much of a grasp on my literary voice at the time. Since then, I’d immersed in New Criticism, rejected it, and finished the draft early 2026.
What changed most between the first and final drafts?
Some mixed metaphors let go, some renaming and reassignment. I like to think I came to the original work I had that wanted to talk about too many things and latch onto too many ideas, and came away from it with a poem that speaks to something I want to dissect.
What advice would you give someone sitting down to write a first draft?
Get everything out. The idea is most genuine on first draft. Even if it sounds wrong, sounds bad, sounds off, sounds not-quite-you. There’s always room to come back to it later. And there’s always room to kill your darlings in the future.
What advice would you give someone trying to turn a first draft into a final poem?
I’d say to let work breathe. It’s nice to pour yourself into your work and to feel strongly about a draft, but it will always feel wrong to go with the first draft and consider it the final work. A friend, Morgan Doerr, would always tell me: nothing is sacred.
About the poet
Lillian Navales (she/her) is a trans woman writer-designer based in Bacolod City. Her work can be found in Kinaiya – PUSO(K): Mga Tula, Sidlak – The Mutien Marie Journal, and in the zines of the Santermo Writers Guild.
