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***This is the sixty-first in a never-ending series called BACKSTORY OF THE
POEM where the Chris Rice Cooper Blog (CRC) focuses on one specific
poem and how the poet wrote that specific poem. All BACKSTORY OF THE
POEM links are at the end of this piece.
Title Photo Below: Linda Imbler in January of 2019. Copyright permission granted by Linda Imbler for this CRC Blog Post Only
# 61 Backstory of the Poem
“Neptune’s Choir”
by Linda Imbler
Can you go
through the step-by-step process of writing this poem from the moment the idea
was first conceived in your brain until final form? This poem evolved the way many of mine do. I think over my day before falling asleep and
ask myself if there’s anything that has stuck with me throughout the day. In the case of this particular poem, I had
been reading about all the flooding in Florida.
I conceived that the people singing at the shore are actually the people
who live there. The idea that they sing
through their day rather than just go through the motions of everyday living or simply talking seemed more interesting and artistic to me and also would to a reader. The concept of the gulls grieving for those victims of the unforgiving shore was knocked around for awhile. I see the gulls as the rest of us who were not part of this disaster. Does the fact that we were flying mean I think we are better than those who perished? Not at all. Simply, we were on higher ground.
The main
phrases of the poem were actually recorded on a small recorder (Right) I keep by my bed
so I wouldn’t lose any thoughts. The next day, I grabbed a pencil (because it
was handier) and started fleshing out the poem.
I made sure I got a lyrical rhythm going with the work. When my poems are done, in other words, when
I think I have said what I want to say the way I want to say it, I take the
paper to my Mac and use dictation to read it aloud. This is important because my poems are not
just meant to be read. They are also
meant to be spoken and meant to be heard.
Where were you
when you started to actually write the poem?
And please describe the place in great detail. I was in my library, with the glass French doors, where I have my books, lots of framed art,
mementos, a 20 gallon fish tank with two clownfish, my computer, lots of paper,
pens, pencils. I sit on a comfortable
brown back chair and I write away. I
write in snatches or until completion. I
cannot write to music like some of my poet friends because I tend to move to
music and my handwriting is bad enough without having words smeared all over
the page!
What month and
year did you start writing this poem? September, 2018 (Right:)
How many drafts
of this poem did you write before going to the final? (And can you share a
photograph of your rough drafts with pen markings on it?)
My first draft was the recording. I always try to do all my poems on the same
sheet of paper. If I have any added
lines that, at the end, don’t fit that poem, I will save them for another
poem. Here are my notes for “Neptune’s
Choir.” Luckily, I had not shredded them
yet. I often do that once a poem if
finished so I don’t have a lot of used paper lying about.
Which part of
the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? The part about these people singing through life. It made them seem more alive which makes it
all the more tragic that they are no longer so.
Anything you would like to add? I truly appreciate the opportunity to
share my creative process through your blog.
I am honored. Thank you.
Neptune’s Choir
There were hundreds of
people singing there,
Voices at the shore.
Then the waves came
crashing down
So many songsters
drowned,
While seagulls lamented
overhead,
Articulating above the
water’s flow and ebb,
With shrill voices,
The fearful nature of
grief.
I can be
contacted through my blog or on Facebook at my page “Linda Imbler Poet”
BACKSTORY OF THE POEM
LINKS
001 December 29, 2017
Margo
Berdeshevksy’s “12-24”
002 January 08, 2018
Alexis
Rhone Fancher’s “82 Miles From the Beach, We Order The Lobster At Clear Lake
Café”
003 January 12, 2018
Barbara
Crooker’s “Orange”
004 January 22, 2018
Sonia
Saikaley’s “Modern Matsushima”
005 January 29, 2018
Ellen
Foos’s “Side Yard”
006 February 03, 2018
Susan
Sundwall’s “The Ringmaster”
007 February 09, 2018
Leslea
Newman’s “That Night”
008 February 17, 2018
Alexis
Rhone Fancher “June Fairchild Isn’t Dead”
009 February 24, 2018
Charles
Clifford Brooks III “The Gift of the Year With Granny”
010 March 03, 2018
Scott
Thomas Outlar’s “The Natural Reflection of Your Palms”
011 March 10, 2018
Anya
Francesca Jenkins’s “After Diane Beatty’s Photograph “History Abandoned”
012 March 17, 2018
Angela
Narciso Torres’s “What I Learned This Week”
013 March 24, 2018
Jan
Steckel’s “Holiday On ICE”
014 March 31, 2018
Ibrahim
Honjo’s “Colors”
015 April 14, 2018
Marilyn
Kallett’s “Ode to Disappointment”
016 April 27, 2018
Beth
Copeland’s “Reliquary”
017 May 12, 2018
Marlon
L Fick’s “The Swallows of Barcelona”
018 May 25, 2018
Juliet
Cook’s “ARTERIAL DISCOMBOBULATION”
019 June 09, 2018
Alexis
Rhone Fancher’s “Stiletto Killer. . . A Surmise”
020 June 16, 2018
Charles
Rammelkamp’s “At Last I Can Start Suffering”
021 July 05, 2018
Marla
Shaw O’Neill’s “Wind Chimes”
022 July 13, 2018
Julia Gordon-Bramer’s
“Studying Ariel”
023 July 20, 2018
Bill Yarrow’s “Jesus
Zombie”
024 July 27, 2018
Telaina Eriksen’s “Brag
2016”
025 August 01, 2018
Seth Berg’s “It is only
Yourself that Bends – so Wake up!”
026 August 07, 2018
David Herrle’s “Devil In
the Details”
027 August 13, 2018
Gloria Mindock’s “Carmen
Polo, Lady Necklaces, 2017”
028 August 21, 2018
Connie Post’s “Two
Deaths”
029 August 30, 2018
Mary Harwell Sayler’s
“Faces in a Crowd”
030 September 16, 2018
Larry Jaffe’s “The
Risking Point”
031 September 24,
2018
Mark Lee Webb’s “After
We Drove”
032 October 04, 2018
Melissa Studdard’s
“Astral”
033 October 13, 2018
Robert Craven’s “I Have
A Bass Guitar Called Vanessa”
034 October 17, 2018
David Sullivan’s “Paper
Mache Peaches of Heaven”
035 October 23, 2018
Timothy Gager’s
“Sobriety”
036 October 30, 2018
Gary Glauber’s “The
Second Breakfast”
037 November 04, 2018
Heather Forbes-McKeon’s
“Melania’s Deaf Tone Jacket”
038 November 11, 2018
Andrena Zawinski’s
“Women of the Fields”
039 November 00, 2018
Gordon Hilger’s “Poe”
040 November 16, 2018
Rita Quillen’s “My
Children Question Me About Poetry” and “Deathbed Dreams”
041 November 20, 2018
Jonathan Kevin Rice’s
“Dog Sitting”
042 November 22, 2018
Haroldo Barbosa Filho’s
“Mountain”
043 November 27, 2018
Megan Merchant’s “Grief
Flowers”
044 November 30, 2018
Jonathan P Taylor’s
“This poem is too neat”
045 December 03, 2018
Ian Haight’s “Sungmyo
for our Dead Father-in-Law”
046 December 06, 2018
Nancy Dafoe’s “Poem in
the Throat”
047 December 11, 2018
Jeffrey Pearson’s
“Memorial Day”
048 December 14, 2018
Frank Paino’s “Laika”
049 December 15, 2018
Jennifer Martelli’s “Anniversary”
O50 December 19, 2018
Joseph Ross’s “For Gilberto Ramos, 15, Who Died in
the Texas Desert, June 2014”
051 December 23, 2018
“The Persistence of
Music”
by Anatoly Molotkov
052 December 27, 2018
“Under Surveillance”
by Michael Farry
053 December 28, 2018
“Grand Finale”
by Renuka Raghavan
054 December 29, 2018
“Aftermath”
by Gene Barry
055 January 2, 2019
“&”
by Larissa Shmailo
056 January 7, 2019
“The Seamstress:
by Len Kuntz
057 January 10, 2019
"Natural History"
by Camille T Dungy
058 January 11, 2019
“BLOCKADE”
by Brian Burmeister
059 January 12, 2019
“Lost”
by Clint Margrave
060 January 14, 2019
“Menopause”
by Pat Durmon
061 January 19, 2019
“Neptune’s Choir”
by Linda Imbler
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