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***This is the fifty-third 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.
#53 Backstory of the
Poem
“Grand Finale”
by Renuka Raghavan
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? The original conception of this poem began while I
was with my family at a local planetarium watching a show called Cassini’s
Grand Finale, where NASA scientists from California’s JPL were explaining the
last set of pictures sent to Earth before the satellite plunged into Saturn.
That night, I dreamed I died on the satellite. (Above Right: Kevin Gill's concept of Cassini's controlled atmospheric entry into Saturn. CCBY2.0)
My
writing nook, (Right) is comfortable and joyfully cluttered. I have drafts of current
work and past work scattered about. Also on the desk, you’ll find my daughter’s
math homework and my son’s spelling homework. It’s the family’s catch-all
place, and contrary to what you might think, it’s very conducive to writing!
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?) I had about 3
drafts of this poem, before I was happy with the final version. While I usually
write out my drafts on paper before typing them out, this one was typed out
from the beginning, and I made changes to the document in Word at each
revision. Sadly, no cool pictures of paper pock-marked with editing tags.
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? As morose as it may sound, I enjoy poems that are written with a melancholic beauty: sad poems written with language and images that are anything but. That’s the feeling I was trying to evoke in this poem. A somber, wistful elegance…with a little hypnagogic surrealism thrown in for good measure.
Has this poem been published before? And if so where? “Gran Finale” was published by the incomparable, Nixes Mate Review, Issue 7, Spring 2018.
http://nixesmate.pub/issue-7-spring-2018/
Anything you would like to add? Dissecting the craft behind the poem was fun. Thanks for this opportunity, Christal. And thanks for everything you do to support writers!
Anything you would like to add? Dissecting the craft behind the poem was fun. Thanks for this opportunity, Christal. And thanks for everything you do to support writers!
Grand Finale
I dreamt of you last night.
We were standing on a giant satellite,
the size of a yellow school bus.
We were standing on a giant satellite,
the size of a yellow school bus.
How did we get here, you asked?
It was always the plan, I answered.
We’ve been preparing ourselves
for the past ten years.
It was always the plan, I answered.
We’ve been preparing ourselves
for the past ten years.
We embraced,
our bodies locked. We were
buoyant and feather light, tethered
only to each other and the
rocketing satellite.
our bodies locked. We were
buoyant and feather light, tethered
only to each other and the
rocketing satellite.
The vast universe shining behind us,
was the canvas we painted in radiant golds and silvers,
en route to our destination.
was the canvas we painted in radiant golds and silvers,
en route to our destination.
We stood side by side,
hand in hand,
watching particles and rings fly by
as we barreled into Saturn’s glowing heart.
hand in hand,
watching particles and rings fly by
as we barreled into Saturn’s glowing heart.
On this, Cassini’s grand finale,
we can be as we want, my love,
knowing full well we will
never again touch the ground.
we can be as we want, my love,
knowing full well we will
never again touch the ground.
Twitter: @RenukaRag
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
