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***This is the twenty-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.
*Below Black and White Photo of Bill Yarrow in April of 2018. Copyright permission granted by Bill Yarrow for this CRC Blog Post Only
#23 Backstory of the
Poem
“Jesus Zombie”
by Bill Yarrow
bill.yarrow@gmail.com
https://billyarrow.wordpress.com/
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?
I had been writing a
series of "bad uncle" poems, persona poems in the voice of a young
nephew whose iconoclastic uncle was filling his head with offensive, often
blasphemous, notions, vile interpretations, and noxious ideas. I got the idea
of Jesus as the first zombie and the poem just snowballed from there. Its first
and final form were remarkably similar. In all the versions, the unnamed nephew
was the speaker. The other characters, his uncle and his father, were
there from the start. The uncle's name did change from Uncle Nat to Uncle Shaw
to Uncle Ned in the final published version in Blasphemer, which came
out on March 12, 2015 from Lit Fest Press. There were some other purely
typographical changes related to how to format the dialogue in the poem. (http://www.festivalwriter.org)
Where were you when you
started to actually write the poem? And
please describe the place in great detail.
I wrote "Jesus,
Zombie" after class one day in my office at Joliet Junior College. The office is off of an interior corridor so
there are no windows in it, but it's spacious and the floor is carpeted. I
share my office, so there are two large desks with desktop computers on each,
two rolling chairs, two file cabinets, and eight bookshelves mounted to the
wall. The walls are bare except for two bulletin boards. (Left: Bill Yarrow's office at Joliet Junior College. Copyright permission granted by Bill Yarrow for this CRC Blog Post Only)
What month and year did
you start writing this poem?
September 2014. (Right: Bill Yarrow April of 2014. Copyright permission granted by Bill Yarrow for this CRC BLog Post Only)
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?)
The poem went through
twelve drafts. Unfortunately, I cannot share a draft with pen markings on it as
I always write and revise on the computer. I save all of my revisions on the
computer. I never print out my work to revise it in pencil or pen.
Were there any lines in
any of your rough drafts of this poem that were not in the final version? And can you share them with us? In the original version of the poem, there was a
line describing the uncle with a "look
of bedeviled surprise on his red face." In subsequent versions, this became "my red-faced uncle turned
toward me with a look of surprise on his face." However, with that
line, the line breaks in the poem didn't work the way I wanted them to, so, in
the final version of the poem, the line became "with a look of red surprise on his face."
What do you want readers
of this poem to take from this poem? I never think
of my poems in that way.
Which part of the poem
was the most emotional of you to write and why? The part where the father runs up the stairs to
protect his son from his brother's blasphemy. The emotion surrounding
protection is longstanding and profound. Poor Hamlet! No father to protect him
from his wicked uncle!
Has this poem been
published before? And if
so where?
It
appears in Blasphemer, my second full-length book of
poems. In May 2017, it was reprinted in Michael Dickel's
(https://www.facebook.com/michael.dekel?lst=100001876654400%3A651224075%3A1531945180) online journal Meta/Phor(e)
Play. And
in fictionaut http://fictionaut.com/stories/bill-yarrow/jesus-zombie
Anything you would like
to add? If sacrilege offends you, please do not read my poem.
Jesus,
Zombie
"Jesus
was a zombie?" I ask, shocked.
My
uncle turns towards me with a look
of
red surprise on his face. Absolutely!
He
was the King of the Zombies. He was
one
of the first to die and then come back
so
he's among the original undead. Sly
zombie.
Very crafty, let me tell you—
gets
people to eat his body and drink
his
blood, and when they do, they belong
to
him—forever! He not only eats their
brains,
but he also devours their hearts,
and
then they can never die. Watch out
for
this Jesus fella. He's coming after you.
And
he'll never stop chasing you down.
"What'll
I do if I see him?" I ask, shaking
in
my chair. Cross your fingers like this—
that'll
make him think you're one of them,
and
he'll leave you be.
"What lies are you
telling
my boy?" my dad shouts running up
from
the basement. He grabs Uncle Ned
by
the shirt, jerks him up, and starts to
choke
him. Hey, take it easy, brother!
Just
teaching the kid to fear the Lord.
Bill Yarrow, Professor of English at Joliet Junior College and an
editor at Blue Fifth Review, is the author of The Vig of
Love, Blasphemer, Pointed Sentences, and five chapbooks. He has been
nominated eight times for a Pushcart Prize. Against Prompts, his
fourth full-length collection, is forthcoming from Lit Fest Press in October
2018. (Right: Bill Yarrow in April of 2018. Copyright permission granted by Bill Yarrow for this CRC Blog Post Only)
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”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/07/23-backstory-of-poem-jesus-zombie-by.html
024 July 27, 2018
Telaina Eriksen’s “Brag
2016”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/07/24-backstory-of-poem-brag-2016-by.html
025 August 01, 2018
Seth Berg’s (It is only
Yourself that Bends – so Wake up!”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/08/25-backstory-of-poem-it-is-only.html
026 August 07, 2018
David Herrle’s “Devil In
the Details”
