Friday, April 5, 2019

#93 Backstory of the Poem "A Father Calls to his child on Liveleak" by Stephen Byrne


Chris Rice Cooper 
caccoop@aol.com
https://www.facebook.com/car.cooper.7

*The images in this specific piece are granted copyright privilege by:  Public Domain, CCSAL, GNU Free Documentation Licenses, Fair Use Under The United States Copyright Law, or given copyright privilege by the copyright holder which is identified beneath the individual photo.

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*** The CRC Blog welcomes submissions from published and unpublished poets for BACKSTORY OF THE POEM series.  Contact CRC Blog via email at caccoop@aol.com or personal Facebook messaging at https://www.facebook.com/car.cooper.7

***This is the ninety-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. 
 *All images are give copyright permission by Stephen Byrne unless otherwise noted.
Below Title Image - Stephen Byrne in 2019.
#93 Backstory of the Poem
“A Father Calls to his Child on Liveleak”
by Stephen Byrne

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?   This was one of the first poems I wrote that would go on to inspire the collection that became my book ‘Somewhere but not here’, and it just so happened, that at the same time as I was beginning to participate in the ‘How Writers Write Poetry’ with The University of Iowa’s International Writing Program, the bombardment of Gaza by Israel in July 2014 was beginning too.

      I was given an exercise to create a rhymed poem without using any rhymed words, sort of a song like poem, very challenging, and In the meantime, I was keeping any eye on the conflict which was now turning into a slaughter.
      I came across a video of a father in a makeshift hospital room, screaming for the child to wake up, holding a dead child in his arms and trying to give the child a doll, while other family members tried to console and make him put the child down. 
https://media.
alwatanvoice.com/
video/21c7141422f4083e.mp4
      I was devastated watching this. I was ready to get online and voice my anger when it dawned on me that this was pointless. That this was yet again, just another person behind a laptop, from the comfort of a nice home, raving on about a conflict far away from a west of Ireland apartment, safe, warm. This was how the idea for world-issue stories from unheard voices gave birth to this poem, and the book.
      The images would not leave my head. The sound of the crying. The doll. The child. Therefore, I wrote a first draft that I believe took no longer than 10 minutes, incorporating the voice of the father, placed in the madness of the bombing and chaotic surroundings.
     
     Using slant iambic pentameter and as slant as possible, words of similarity, it just came together, a very song like chant that I believe captures the emotional chaos and tragedy of that moment. It was a great exercise and one I still use to create a very musical poem that sounds great on the ear, especially when read aloud.

Where were you when you started to actually write the poem?And please describe the place in great detail.   I was writing on my balcony in a two-bedroom apartment I shared with a friend, overlooking Galway Bay and the river Corrib in the west of Ireland. It was summer of 2014. Weather permitting, I would sit out here and read and write, drinking as much coffee as possible. 
      The view was magnificent. The bay, the river, the Clare Mountains. Boats, seals, screaming seagulls, the smell of a sea at high tide, and the stench of the green moss at low. Something I miss is the smell of rain before it appears, and you see it, creeping across the bay, dark as a swarm of bees, before 
it hits home.
What month and year did you start writing this poem?   July 2014.

 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 can’t find any copies of drafts. Since I’ve relocated, everything is up-in-arms and lot of papers misplaced. But I’ve a good memory.      

       I remember the exercise well and the first draft flew like a bird on the page. I remember being very happy with the first draft, and with this first draft, we would submit it to others and the tutor doing the Iowa-writing program for constructive criticism. From this feedback, I think it took another two to three drafts and I was happy with 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?    Now, I have no documented evidence so I can’t really say or remember. As far as I can remember, it was in one big verse before been chopped into three.


What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem?   To remember there are always going to be two sides to the same story. Who is right? Who is wrong? But, at the end of the day, someone’s child is dead, regardless of the side you take, never forget the images of the innocent. 
     That the statement, war is war, is a load of nonsense. To never forget how lucky and privileged we are to sit on a warm couch at night in our well kept homes without the fear of bombardment or the death of a loved one through shelling. If you have a child, try put yourself in this fathers shoes. 

Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why?   The lines ‘see the doll I got you son’. Watching a father, try to wake a dead child to give him a doll will never leave my mind.

Has this poem been published before? And if so where?   It was published in the annual print journal, ROPES 2015, an annual literature journal brought out by the MA students of NUI college Galway. And at the beginning of this year, it was re-published online and translated into Italian for Inkroci - Magazine of Culture and Cinema.

Anything you would like to add?   Yes, don’t be afraid to give the unheard a voice. A huge portion of contemporary writing, especially in the US, revolves around the personal, the confessional. Stand up and write for the unheard and let your emotions carry messages on the wings of a bird or in the wind singing through trees. Thank you for your time and questions. I love this whole concept and may it grow and serve you and the audience well.

A Father Calls to his Child on Liveleak
                                                 In Memoriam of 513 Children

Wake up child wake up
cries the father to his child
beneath the torn & tattered building
within the dust & shattered stone
Just above his bloodied waistline
to his chest he holds his child
to his breast he finds are pieces
of a heart & of a mind

Wake up child wake up
two three four they blow again
in the background loud explosions
but the father holds the hand
of the child he tries to wake
for the doll within his hand
see the doll I got you son
see the doll I got you son
              
now wake up child wake up
but his child lays stone cold dead
in his arms he cannot see
the back of the head that is not there
& the night will fall in screaming
& the dawn will snap in two
& the bombs will keep on feasting
wake up child wake up

Stephen Byrne is an Irish chef and writer currently living outside Chicago. His first collection ‘Somewhere but not Here’ won the RL Poetry Award, 2016 International category and was a finalist in the International Book Awards. In 2012 he collaborated with 6 Galway based poets known collectively as ‘The Tuesday Knights’ on an poetry anthology called Wayword Tuesdays including a local based artist and photographer. 
     The book was short listed for Writing Magazines Writers’ Circle Anthology Award. He has been published worldwide in places such as Warscapes, Indian Review, Tuck Magazine, Rise Up Review, RædLeafPoetry-India, The Original Van Gogh’s Ear Anthology and many others as well as interviewed by Words Without Borders. He is a food writer for the website This is Galway.
https://stephenbyrne.org

BACKSTORY OF THE POEM LINKS

001  December 29, 2017
Margo Berdeshevksy’s “12-24”
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-new-crc-blog-series-backstory-of-poem.html

002  January 08, 2018
Alexis Rhone Fancher’s “82 Miles From the Beach, We Order The Lobster At Clear Lake Café”
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-new-crc-blog-series-backstory-of-poem.html

003 January 12, 2018
Barbara Crooker’s “Orange”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/01/a-new-crc-blog-series-backstory-of-poem_12.html

004 January 22, 2018
Sonia Saikaley’s “Modern Matsushima”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-fourth-installment-of-new-crc-blog.html

005 January 29, 2018
Ellen Foos’s “Side Yard”
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/01/5-backstory-of-poem-sidewalk-by-ellen.html

006 February 03, 2018
Susan Sundwall’s “The Ringmaster”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/02/6-backstory-of-poem-susan-sundwalls.html

007 February 09, 2018
Leslea Newman’s “That Night”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/02/7-backstory-of-poem-that-night-by.html

008 February 17, 2018
Alexis Rhone Fancher “June Fairchild Isn’t Dead”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/02/8-backstory-of-poem-june-fairchild-isnt.html

009 February 24, 2018
Charles Clifford Brooks III “The Gift of the Year With Granny”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/02/9-backstory-of-poem-gift-of-year-with.html

010 March 03, 2018
Scott Thomas Outlar’s “The Natural Reflection of Your Palms”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/03/chris-ricecooper-caccoopaol.html

011 March 10, 2018
Anya Francesca Jenkins’s “After Diane Beatty’s Photograph “History Abandoned”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/03/11-backstory-of-poem-after-diane.html

012  March 17, 2018
Angela Narciso Torres’s “What I Learned This Week”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/03/12-backstory-of-poem-series-angela.html

013 March 24, 2018
Jan Steckel’s “Holiday On ICE”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/03/13-backstory-of-poem-jan-steckels.html

014 March 31, 2018
Ibrahim Honjo’s “Colors”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/03/14-backstory-of-poem-ibrahim-honjos.html

015 April 14, 2018
Marilyn Kallett’s “Ode to Disappointment”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/04/15-backstory-of-poem-ode-to_14.html

016  April 27, 2018
Beth Copeland’s “Reliquary”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/04/16-backstory-of-poem-reliquary-by-beth.html

017  May 12, 2018
Marlon L Fick’s “The Swallows of Barcelona”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/05/17-backstory-of-poem-swallows-of.html

018  May 25, 2018
Juliet Cook’s “ARTERIAL DISCOMBOBULATION”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/05/18-backstory-of-poem-arterial.html

019  June 09, 2018
Alexis Rhone Fancher’s “Stiletto Killer. . . A Surmise”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/06/19-backstory-of-poem-stiletto-killer.html

020 June 16, 2018
Charles Rammelkamp’s “At Last I Can Start Suffering”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/06/20-backstory-of-poem-at-least-i-can.html

021  July 05, 2018
Marla Shaw O’Neill’s “Wind Chimes”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/07/21-backstory-of-poem-wind-chimes-by.html

022 July 13, 2018
Julia Gordon-Bramer’s “Studying Ariel”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/07/22-backstory-of-poem-studying-ariel-by.html

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”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/08/26-backstory-of-poem-devil-in-details.html

027  August 13, 2018
Gloria Mindock’s “Carmen Polo, Lady Necklaces, 2017”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/08/27-backstory-of-poem-carmen-polo-lady.html

028  August 21, 2018
Connie Post’s “Two Deaths”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/08/28-backstory-of-poem-two-deaths-by.html

029  August 30, 2018
Mary Harwell Sayler’s “Faces in a Crowd”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/08/29-backstory-of-poem-faces-in-crowd-by.html

030 September 16, 2018
Larry Jaffe’s “The Risking Point”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/09/30-backstory-of-poem-risking-point-by.html

031  September 24, 2018
Mark Lee Webb’s “After We Drove”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/09/31-backstory-of-poem-after-we-drove-by.html

032  October 04, 2018
Melissa Studdard’s “Astral”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/10/32-backstory-of-poem-astral-by-melissa.html

033 October 13, 2018
Robert Craven’s “I Have A Bass Guitar Called Vanessa”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/10/33-backstory-of-poem-i-have-bass-guitar.html

034  October 17, 2018
David Sullivan’s “Paper Mache Peaches of Heaven”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/10/34-backstory-of-poem-paper-mache.html

035 October 23, 2018
Timothy Gager’s “Sobriety”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/10/35-backstory-of-poem-sobriety-by.html

036  October 30, 2018
Gary Glauber’s “The Second Breakfast”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/10/36-backstory-of-poem-second-breakfast.html

037  November 04, 2018
Heather Forbes-McKeon’s “Melania’s Deaf Tone Jacket”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/11/37-backstory-of-poem-melanias-deaf-tone.html

038 November 11, 2018
Andrena Zawinski’s “Women of the Fields”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/11/38-backstory-of-poem-women-of-fields-by.html

039  November 00, 2018
Gordon Hilger’s “Poe”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/11/39-backstory-of-poem-poe-by-gordon.html

040 November 16, 2018
Rita Quillen’s “My Children Question Me About Poetry” and “Deathbed Dreams”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/11/40-backstory-of-poems-my-children.html

041 November 20, 2018
Jonathan Kevin Rice’s “Dog Sitting”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/11/41-backstory-of-poem-dog-sitting-by.html

042 November 22, 2018
Haroldo Barbosa Filho’s “Mountain”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/11/42-backstory-of-poem-mountain-by.html

043  November 27, 2018
Megan Merchant’s “Grief Flowers”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/11/43-backstory-of-poem-grief-flowers-by.html

044 November 30, 2018
Jonathan P Taylor’s “This poem is too neat”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/11/44-backstory-of-poem-poem-is-too-neat.html

045  December 03, 2018
Ian Haight’s “Sungmyo for our Dead Father-in-Law”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/045-backstory-of-poem-sungmyo-for-our.html

046 December 06, 2018
Nancy Dafoe’s “Poem in the Throat”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/046-backstory-of-poem-poem-registering.html

047 December 11, 2018
Jeffrey Pearson’s “Memorial Day”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/47-backstory-of-poem-memorial-day-by.html

048  December 14, 2018
Frank Paino’s “Laika”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/48-backstory-of-poem-laika-by-frank.html

049  December 15, 2018
Jennifer Martelli’s “Anniversary”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/49-backstory-of-poem-anniversary-by.html

O50  December 19, 2018
Joseph Ross’s “For Gilberto Ramos, 15, Who Died in the Texas Desert, June 2014”
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/50-backstory-of-poem-for-gilberto-ramos.html

051 December 23, 2018
“The Persistence of Music”
by Anatoly Molotkov
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/51-backstory-of-poem-persistence-of.html

052  December 27, 2018
“Under Surveillance”
by Michael Farry
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/52-backstory-of-poem-under-surveillance.html

053  December 28, 2018
“Grand Finale”
by Renuka Raghavan
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/53-backstory-of-poem-grand-finale-by.html

054  December 29, 2018
“Aftermath”
by Gene Barry
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/54-backstory-of-poem-aftermath-by-gene.html

055 January 2, 2019
“&”
by Larissa Shmailo
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/55-backstory-of-poem-by-larissa-shmailo.html

056  January 7, 2019
“The Seamstress:
by Len Kuntz
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/56-backstory-of-poem-seamstress-by-len_6.html

057  January 10, 2019
"Natural History"
by Camille T Dungy
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/57-backstory-of-poem-natural-history-by.html


058  January 11, 2019
“BLOCKADE”
by Brian Burmeister
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/58-backstory-of-poem-blockade-by-brian.html

059  January 12, 2019
“Lost”
by Clint Margrave
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/59-backstory-of-poem-lost-by-clint.html

060 January 14, 2019
“Menopause”
by Pat Durmon
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/60-backstory-of-poem-menopause-by-pat.html

061 January 19, 2019
“Neptune’s Choir”
by Linda Imbler
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/61-backstory-of-poem-neptunes-choir-by.html

062  January 22, 2019
“Views From the Driveway”
by Amy Barone
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/62-backstory-of-poem-views-from.html

063  January 25, 2019
“The heron leaves her haunts in the marsh”
by Gail Wronsky
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/63-backstory-of-poem-heron-leaves-her.html

064  January 30, 2019
“Shiprock”
by Terry Lucas
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/01/64-backstory-of-poem-shiprock-by-terry_29.html

065 February 02, 2019
“Summer 1970, The University of Virginia Opens to Women in the Fall”
by Alarie Tennille
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/65-backstory-of-poem-summer-1970.html

066 February 05, 2019
“At School They Learn Nouns”
by Patrick Bizzaro
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/66-backstory-of-poem-at-school-they.html

067  February 06, 2019
“I Must Not Breathe”
by Angela Jackson-Brown
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/67-backstory-of-poem-i-must-not-breathe.html

068 February 11, 2019
“Lunch on City Island, Early June”
by Christine Potter
 https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/068-backstory-of-poem-lunch-on-city.html

069 February 12, 2019
“Singing”
by Andrew McFadyen-Ketchum
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/69-backstory-of-poem-singing-by-andrew.html

070 February 14, 2019
“Daily Commute”
by Christopher P. Locke
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/70-backstory-of-poem-daily-commute-by.html

071 February 18, 2019
“How Silent The Trees”
by Wyn Cooper
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/71-backstory-of-poem-how-silent-trees.html


072 February 20, 2019
“A New Psalm of Montreal”
by Sheenagh Pugh
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/72-backstory-of-poem-new-psalm-of.html

073 February 23, 2019
“Make Me A Butterfly”
by Amy Barbera
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/73-backstory-of-poem-make-me-butterfly_23.html

074 February 26, 2019
“Anthem”
by Sandy Coomer
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/02/74-backstory-of-poem-anthem-by-sandy.html

075 March 4, 2019
“Shape of a Violin”
by Kelly Powell
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/75-backstory-of-poem-shape-of-violin-by.html

076 March 5, 2019
“Inward Oracle”
by J.P. Dancing Bear
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/76-backstory-of-poem-inward-oracle-by.html

077 March 7, 2019
“I Broke My Bust Of Jesus”
by Susan Sundwall
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/77-backstory-of-poem-i-broke-my-bust-of.html

078 March 9, 2019
“My Mother at 19”
by John Guzlowski
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/78-backstory-of-poem-my-mother-was-19.html

079 March 10, 2019
“Paddling”
by Chera Hammons Miller
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/79-backstory-of-poem-paddling-by-chera.html

080 March 12, 2019
“Of Water and Echo”
by Gillian Cummings
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/80-backstory-of-poem-of-water-and-echo.html

081   082   083    March 14, 2019
“Little Political Sense”   “Crossing Kansas with Jim
Morrison”  “The Land of Sky and Blue Waters”
by Dr. Lindsey Martin-Bowen
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/81-82-and-83-backstory-of-poems-by-dr.html

084 March 15, 2019
“A Tune To Remember”
by Anna Evans
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/84-backstory-of-poem-tune-to-remember.html

085 March 19, 2019
“At the End of Time (Wish You Were Here)
by Jeannine Hall Gailey
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/85-backstory-of-poem-at-end-of-time.html

086 March 20, 2019
“Garden of Gethsemane”
by Marletta Hemphill
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/86-backstory-of-poem-view-from.html

087 March 21, 2019
“Letters From a War”
by Chelsea Dingman
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/87-backstory-of-poem-letters-from-war.html

088 March 26, 2019
“HAT”
by Bob Heman
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/88-backstory-of-poem-hat-by-bob-heman.html

089 March 27, 2019
“Clay for the Potter”
by Belinda Bourgeois
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/89-backstory-of-poem-clay-for-potter-by.html

#090 March 30, 2019
“The Pose”
by John Hicks
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/03/90-backstory-of-poem-pose-by-john-hicks.html

#091 April 2, 2019
“Last Night at the Wursthaus”
by Doug Holder
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/04/91-backstory-of-poem-last-night-at.html

#092 April 4, 2019
“Original Sin”
by Diane Lockward
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/04/92-backstory-of-poem-original-sin-by.html

#093 April 5, 2019
“A Father Calls to his child on Liveleak”
by Stephen Byrne
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/04/93-backstory-of-poem-father-calls-to.html

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