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***This is
the seventy-second 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.
072 Backstory of the Poem “A New Psalm
of Montreal” by Sheenagh Pugh
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 don't really recall the writing process in that much detail. It began when the results of the Brexit referendum came out. I was on holiday in Montreal at the time (I voted remain by post). The "Montreal" refrain was imposed by the fact that the poem was an echo of Samuel Butler's 19th-century comic poem "A Psalm of Montreal" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Psalm_of_Montreal) although my poem is neither comic nor anything like the original in theme. I just wanted to echo it because it was the only poem I knew about Montreal. I would have begun it in a notebook but moved on to the computer very quickly, because I revise so much that I soon can't read my own writing.
I don't really recall the writing process in that much detail. It began when the results of the Brexit referendum came out. I was on holiday in Montreal at the time (I voted remain by post). The "Montreal" refrain was imposed by the fact that the poem was an echo of Samuel Butler's 19th-century comic poem "A Psalm of Montreal" (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Psalm_of_Montreal) although my poem is neither comic nor anything like the original in theme. I just wanted to echo it because it was the only poem I knew about Montreal. I would have begun it in a notebook but moved on to the computer very quickly, because I revise so much that I soon can't read my own writing.
What month and year did you start writing this poem? June 2016. I wouldn't
normally recall so exactly, but of course there was the damn referendum... (Right: Sheenagh Pugh in 2016. Copyright permission granted by Sheenagh Pugh for this CRC Blog Post only) 
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? What they take from the poem is pretty
much their affair;
I have no control over that, once it leaves my hands. For me
it was about being in a very laid-back, cosmopolitan, open-minded place and
regretting that the place I came from had shown itself so petty and
small-minded. But others may see other things in it.
I have no control over that, once it leaves my hands. For me
it was about being in a very laid-back, cosmopolitan, open-minded place and
regretting that the place I came from had shown itself so petty and
small-minded. But others may see other things in it.
I write with my
intellect, not my emotions, in fact I try to keep them very much under control
while writing. It's the readers who need to do the feeling, and why should they
bother if the poet's doing it all for them?
I don’t mean emotion should be completely
absent from poems but that the poet should always be in control of it
and using it, in a quite calculated manner, as they would any other means of
communication. I would say Louise Gluck
does that, and Paul Henry, also, most of the time Jack Gilbert – see
the-matter-of-fact deadpan tone of “Michiko Dead”.
I don’t mean emotion should be completely
A New Psalm of Montreal
with apologies to Samuel
Butler
Rue St-Paul early, sunlight
trickling down
the tall stone buildings to
warm cobbles
and flagstones damp from
overnight cleaning,
or stabbing with sudden
warmth from side-streets:
oh morning, oh Montreal.
Too early for the homeless
man and his cat
with its diamante collar and
sleek black fur,
too early for the pubs, the
pavement cafés,
the street stalls, the girl
with the violin
who plays to Montreal.
When we cleared customs, the
nice man checked
our return tickets, I suppose
in case
we planned to stay, drop off
the radar
in some laid-back, sunny,
bilingual spot
like St-Paul, Montreal.
And it is sounding like a
fine notion,
now that the snivelling wet
little island
whence we came has stumped
off, doolally, muttering
to itself "You'll all be
sorry when I'm gone".
Oh dear: oh Montreal.
And St-Paul is waking,
drinking its coffee,
watering its hanging baskets,
setting out
its goods: sun is drenching
the walls now
and a terrible guitarist is tuning
up:
oh summer, oh Montreal.
A slim girl with the very
slight swell
of early pregnancy swings
smiling by,
dropping coins in every cap
on the pavement,
and I would quite like to
apply for asylum,
oh please, oh Montreal.
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
