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***This is the seventy-sixth 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.
#76 Backstory of the
Poem
“Inward Oracle”
by J.P. Dancing Bear
I was listening to Chris Hayes’s tv program, All In, and he said, just as a kind of
throwaway remark, “There’s a Donald Trump in all of us.” 
I was in the process
of writing a series of poems which became my book Of Oracles and Monsters which
will be released next year by Glass Lyre Press. I let the idea roll around in
my head for quite a while… the idea of some part of ourselves that is volatile
and unpredictable and destructive. I thought about old volcanoes that are
dormant most of the time, about people who live near those volcanoes, always at
the mercy of the volcanoes’ moods.
There’s also a tie into Oracles in that
temples were often times located over fissures in the earth where toxic gases
would escape, like what happens in volcano systems. The exposures to these
gases are what is believed to be the source of Oracle visions. 
In my research I
knew that oracles channeled or were allowed to see visions by the permission of
a god. This got me thinking about Apollo, whom is known as a god of truth (his
chariot of sunlight), but is also the god of lies (because of the shadows
caused by the light).
So now I had the basic elements of the poem and just had
to make them work with each other. As I started working through the poem, I
began to also feel like divine providence and the kings who claim it and how
much unbridled ego you have to have to believe that. Then remember, all of this
is the reflecting pool of one’s self, a self that might well be destroying its
own interior or about to. 
I will also
point out that this poem has a theme image which reoccurs in the book, and that
is of the eye burning as it sees the future, which is an idea put forth by Anne
Carson in her “Casandra Float Can” piece. The poem was originally written as
part of my “Sonnets” series, which was what I had been working on at the time,
but it was clear to me later that it was part of this new collection.
Where were you when you
started to actually write the poem? And
please describe the place in great detail. I spend a lot of time outside my house (which is a
sanctuary for fearful hounds) where I make sure the hounds have plenty of time
to play and do their business, lay in the sun when the sun makes an appearance
here in the Pacific Northwest. There’s usually geese and ducks landing or
taking off in the lake I live next to. There’s an osprey that fishes the lake
and hovers above watching the water. Often times there are eagles. Lots of
crows. And variety of smaller birds like finches and sparrows. At night, you
can hear the Pacific about a mile or so away, and there are coyotes howling,
sometimes fairly close. As quiet as the place seems, it can be fairly loud at
times, but I love it.
So I have a lot of time to think poems through, let them
roll around in my head, wait for the lines to percolate. Then when I have serval
lines I begin the process of writing them down. So I was outside at night, when
that Chris Hayes quote kept nagging at me, wanting me to do something.
What month and year did
you start writing this poem? June 2017
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?) Actually my first draft is almost entirely in my head. Unlike a lot of my poems, I worked the images first and really played around with them in my mind. It might be because the original inspiration was something said. Because, now that I’m thinking about it, there’s another Chris Hayes quote, “Manifestly Unqualified”, which turned out to be the title of the poem. And my process for that one was very similar to this.
What do you want
readers of this poem to take from this poem? The poem wants the reader to pay attention to our
politeness that will allow obvious lies to go unchecked and not hold the liar
accountable, but it also shows the danger to and the damage done to society as
the liar continues and the people shy further from truth or become jaded to
blatant fabrication.
Has this poem been published before? And if so where? It came out in November of 2017 in vol. 10, issue 3 of the online magazine, diode.
Anything you would like to add? I think writers have a great responsibility to communicate
ideas and observations to readers. It’s
an immense duty, particularly in times when dangers rise and threaten our human
freedom and rights.
Inward Oracle
“There's a Donald Trump in all of
us."—Chris Hayes
Apollo, Apollo my old ray of truth,
only because
of
the harnessed sun, not the shadow cast—the lie.
Everyone
comes to me for something they want—
answers
to the whens, the wherefores, the where arts,
when
the heart is the future of a dormant volcano
at
the foot of which you might live your entire life
in
peace and content, still you only want to know
of
the violence, the screaming, the catastrophe.
•
The
old kings are good for provoking the gods, adding
to
your fear—dwell upon eruptions and greed. The eye
boils
in such futures, mad monarchs laugh, they clutch
their
scepters in gloom and this your consumed, scorched
heart
spent on a fork, in an unopened alleyway. Each ray
offers
a silhouette, a child's lie, obvious only when focused on.
Twitter: @jpdancingbear
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
062 January 22, 2019
“Views From the
Driveway”
by Amy Barone
063 January 25, 2019
“The heron leaves her
haunts in the marsh”
by Gail Wronsky
064 January 30, 2019
“Shiprock”
by Terry Lucas
065 February 02, 2019
“Summer 1970, The
University of Virginia Opens to Women in the Fall”
by Alarie Tennille
066 February 05, 2019
“At School They Learn
Nouns”
by Patrick Bizzaro
067 February 06, 2019
“I Must Not Breathe”
by Angela Jackson-Brown
068 February 11, 2019
“Lunch on City Island,
Early June”
by Christine Potter
069 February 12, 2019
“Singing”
by Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum
070 February 14, 2019
“Daily Commute”
by Christopher P. Locke
071 February 18, 2019
“How Silent The Trees”
by Wyn Cooper
072 February 20, 2019
“A New Psalm
of Montreal”
by Sheenagh Pugh
073 February 23, 2019
“Make Me A
Butterfly”
by Amy Barbera
074 February 26, 2019
“Anthem”
by Sandy Coomer
075 March 4, 2019
“Shape of a Violin”
by Kelly Powell
076 March 5, 2019
“Inward Oracle”
by J.P. Dancing Bear
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