Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Poetry Manuscript: Some Ideas on Creation and Order by Jeffrey Levine

7.
Make sure the poems that begin your collection establish the voice and credibility of the manuscript. They should introduce the questions, issues, characters, images, and sources of conflict/tension, etc., that concern you and that will be explored in the book. Think about the trajectory of the manuscript: you want to set the reader off on a journey, a path toward some (even if undisclosed) destination, but forget about "arc." The notion of "arc" is, in my opinion, too willful to be successful in any artistic undertaking. Make the book work, and then let others talk about your "arc."

8.
Just because a poem has been previously published does not mean that you are required to leave it alone. Rethink, re-enter, and if possible, re-vision each poem as if the Paris Review had never taken it.