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***This is the forty-seventh
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: Title photo of Jeffrey Pearson in November of 2018. Copyright permission granted by Jeffrey Pearson for this CRC Blog Post Only.
#47 Backstory of the Poem
“Memorial Day”
by Jeffrey Pearson
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? Poetry prompts tend to
be hit and miss with me. Mostly miss. The prompt for this poem was to write
from a photograph. Much of what I wrote is true and much is not, notably the
fact this photograph does not exist except in my mind’s camera.(Above Right. Attributed to and copyright permission granted by Jeffrey Pearson for this CRC Blog Post Only) 
Dad wore a t-shirt out in the heat of a holiday weekend at
relatives, listening to the Indianapolis 500 on the car radio. It was in
DeKalb, noted for seed corn, not Chicago remembered for its big shoulders and
its politics. Somehow relatives morphed from one family to another with some
sharp details. I’ve written many dad poems, so this began long ago. (Left: Gerald Ira Pearson on September 11, 2012. Copyright permission granted by Jeffrey Pearson for this CRC Blog Post Only)
The legacy father passes to son has fascinated me since
viewing Bertolucci’s film “The Spider’s Stratagem.” Any dad poem written by a
son has me asking what ripples cast out by the father wash up at the feet of
the son.
Where were you when you started to write
the poem? And please describe the place in detail. What month and year did you start writing
this poem? I might have started the poem in a
workshop, but the first time on a computer was an afternoon in July 2013. I
work on a heavy library table, nearly always typing in Pages or Word. A
snowdrift of paper covers much of the surface, and I can find things until I
need to. (Right: Father and Son in June of 2013. Copyright permission granted by Jeffrey Pearson 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?) 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? I can resurrect three significant changes. Firebird
gets replaced by a more generic and accessible Pontiac
Schlitz beer changes to Stag in a later draft. I often
begin poems without punctuation. For the most part, this poem stayed that way, but
some lines were brought up.
I listen to a campus radio station late at night which
plays a lot of Sinatra. He wormed his way into the end months later and nicely
shadows the moon and dad.
No poem is ever finished. The title has changed since it
was published, along with a little tightening up.
What do you want readers of this poem
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to
write and why?
I suppose
the most resonant part of the poem is dad leaving. He suffered with Alzheimer’s,
so he spent a long time leaving before he died. This was written during that
time. (Left: Gerald Ira Pearson in June of 2014. Copyright permission granted by Jeffrey Pearson for this CRC Blog Post Only)
Has this poem been published before? And if so where? The poem was published
on Flying Island and later, the Indiana Humanities website.
Below: Jeffrey Pearson in November 2017. Copyright permission granted by Jeffrey Pearson for this CRC Blog Post Only
Jeffrey
Owen Pearson’s poems have appeared in The Best of Flying Island, So
It Goes, Reckless Writing 2014 Anthology, Tipton Poetry
Journal, Flying Island, and Maize. “I have fallen asleep again
reading Homer” placed third in the 2014 Writers Digest Poetry Awards.
Pudding House Publications published his chapbook Hawaii Slides. A board
member of the Midwest Writers Workshop, he lives in Muncie, IN.
jjopcelia@comcast.net
https://jeffreyopearson.wordpress.com
jjopcelia@comcast.net
https://jeffreyopearson.wordpress.com
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”
