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***This is the fifty-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.
Below: Title photo of Len Kuntz in April of 2018. Copyright permission granted by Len Kuntz for this CRC Blog Post Only
#56 Backstory of the Poem
“The
Seamstress”
by Len Kuntz
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
actually just had the first line: “Our bathtub is filled with buttons.”
I’m not sure where it came from, but it struck me as something quite
fertile. Why would a bathtub be full of buttons? Who put them
there? What kind of buttons? How do other people react to
discovering something like that?
In a matter of a few minutes, I saw the couple
quite vividly and the poem came to life almost on its own.
Almost everything I write is dark, about a
wounded person, or a person struggling with their problems, but almost always
there’s an underbelly of hopefulness in the pieces, or I’d like to think so
anyway.
To me, the most powerful part of the poem is
the end because it’s tragic and lovely at the same time:
“When I look up
you’re there,
naked but smiling,
asking, “Is the water
warm?”
Then, “Got room for two?”
Has
this poem been published before? And if so where? Yes,
in AUTUMN SKY POETRY. The link is on my blog, on the righthand side under
Words in Print, along with everything else I’ve had published online, which is
about 800 or so pieces.
The
Seamstress
Our
bathtub is filled with buttons–
mother
of pearl and metal,
plastic
pea coat shapes with
embossed
anchors,
wooden
toggles from Holland,
horn
and hemp.
Your
hair is a gray dandelion gone to seed.
Your
eyes flit like a startled squirrel
and
saliva webs your mouth when
you
open the door saying,
“What
on earth?”
Later
in bed that night
I
listen to your coarse breath,
your
frail bones moaning when you toss and turn.
But
we were young once,
and
you stitched beautiful things then.
You
dressed queens and saints,
men
with money.
I
slink off the mattress now,
and
click on the bathroom light.
As
I slide inside the tub
the
buttons chatter and gossip,
their
color shimmering.
Perhaps
you clipped them
because
they reminded you of better days,
or
maybe you overhead me on the phone with the rest home folks.
Either
way, I grab handfuls and watch them clatter
across
the great heap.
When
I look up,
you’re
there,
naked
but smiling,
asking,
“Is the water warm?”
Then,
“Got room for two?”
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:
