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***This is
#105 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.
#105 Backstory of the Poem
“Promises Had Been Made”
by Sarah Sarai
*Please note: I am more Transcendentalist than
traditional half-Christian (who is half-Jewish).
My Christian mother was, or at
least presented to her daughters as, disinterested in the traditional story of
flesh and nails, but moved by a story of healing, love, caring for each other,
peace, and a symbolic interpretation of resurrection. Something happened back
then. Whatever it was, however, is less important than whatever ongoing solace
or peace it offers.
Some friends avoid Medieval and Renaissance art because they
don’t want to be “accosted” by Christian art’s strangeness. I get it, but I
think it’s a misunderstanding. I don’t, by way of example, study a portrait by
Rembrandt of some rich jerk I’ve never heard of because I admire the rich jerk,
but because of the story, the revealing of shared humanity.
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? Where were you when you started to actually write the
poem? I
was wandering the Met Museum (NYC) and paused at “The Entombment” (Moretto da Brescio; Italian; 1600s).
I was
interested in the
faces, each its own portrait, in the differences in expressions of grief, the
contrast between the men and women. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus seemed almost
stern, while Mary and Mary Magdelan’s faces revealed suffering, something both
genders were feeling. I was moved by
the depth the women revealed and, also, their ability to bend (which I see as
emblematic of emotional flexibility), in contrast to the stiff posture of the
men.
What month and year did you start writing this poem? How many drafts of this poem did you write before going
to the final? Best
I can figure out, I began writing the poem in 2015. While I sometimes print out
drafts, I no longer save them once I’ve moved on to another draft. I always
have one document on my laptop which contains all the poems I’m working on at any
one time. So right now, I have a doc. in Word titled “PoemsSept-Dec2018” which
has 42 pages of poems. It’s the only way I can organize. When enough of the
poems have been accepted or retired, or, when I have enough new work I’m
getting confused by the presence of older poems, I archive these documents in
my “Old Drafts of Poems” file folder.
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, and before the contest, the
poem ended with this stanza:
In so-beautiful her arms, his so-body
is
a splay of too much beauty to be real.
If it is to be of any value,
a
story will be misunderstood.
The final two lines aim
at expressing my concept of religion, and of story (a religion unto itself) in
general. Interpretations are ongoing, right, and wrong. The painting that
inspired “Promises Had Been Made” depicts Europeans, not more authentic-to-the-story
Semites or North Africans. For a start.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to
write and why? The
question presumes writing is emotional. It is a struggle. For sure. And that’s
all I have to say about this.
Has this poem been published before? And if so
where? “Promises Had Been
Made” was selected by Helen Losse, a poet and much respected editor, for Chris
Cooper’s Personal Lord Jesus Christ Savior
Contest.
Anything you would like to add? Thanks, Chris, for the opportunity
to write about my poem and for this feature of your blog. Also, thanks to Trish
Hopkinson (Left) (https://trishhopkinson.com/, whose listing
of places to submit included Chris’ contest.
And finally. Winning
the Personal Lord Jesus Christ Savior Contest was an honor – I was surprised,
happy, grateful. I loved the contest title which was a little out there –
deliberately so, I thought. I understood it wasn’t speaking to the Southern
Baptist Convention (which just
apologized for their involvement in slavery). It wasn’t about or for homophobic
evangelicals who bring their hate to far corners of the world or right-wingers
who use the word “Christian” when they mean to use “racist” or “close-minded”
or “haters of the poor and meek.” It wasn’t about the Knight Templars murdering
Muslims and Jews, or the Popes who refused to okay birth control and thus are
responsible for at least 20 MILLION deaths in Africa from AIDS. If anyone local
(NYC) is curious, they can ask me, radical, leftie me, about my lifelong
interest in, affection for religion. ###
Promises Had Been Made
On “The Entombment” by
Moretto de Besco
The women hide nothing.
She, captured in
accusation,
a collaborative creator.
Her envelopment has no meaning
to a dead man
whose death won’t
even end death.
Promises had been made.
Would that be me in her arms?
Not me here on
a bench in the
gallery’s center
squaring off
with loneliness and imagination,
both being among art’s
disciples.
But some me – with a body
almost human as his.
I know much of
everything
but not enough.
An other Mary,
head lowering to his
arm –
his conjuration of a
once life
– touching but for
the confident artist’s oils of
celestial buoyancy.
The men are concerned in their way,
eyes averted from mine.
I’m no Mary.
Loyal middle-management, they deny
the present’s threat of pain,
the present’s
carry-through
He is translucent in her arms,
an embodied splay of
too much beauty to be
real.
If it is to be of any value,
a story will be
misunderstood.
You could like my
Facebook page, “The Future Is Happy: Fiction & Poetry of Sarah Sarai,” then leave a message.
Also, I’m @farstargirl on Instagram. And a person could always leave a message
on my blog, My3000LovingArms. Your message will be directed
to me.
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
073 February 23, 2019
“Make Me A
Butterfly”
by Amy Barbera
074 February 26, 2019
“Anthem”
by Sandy Coomer
075 March 4, 2019
“Shape of a Violin”
by Kelly Powell
076 March 5, 2019
“Inward Oracle”
by J.P. Dancing Bear
077 March 7, 2019
“I Broke
My Bust Of Jesus”
by Susan Sundwall
078 March 9, 2019
“My Mother
at 19”
by John Guzlowski
079 March 10, 2019
“Paddling”
by Chera Hammons Miller
080 March 12, 2019
“Of Water
and Echo”
by Gillian Cummings
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
084 March 15, 2019
“A Tune To
Remember”
by Anna Evans
085 March 19, 2019
“At the
End of Time (Wish You Were Here)
by Jeannine Hall Gailey
086 March 20, 2019
“Garden of
Gethsemane”
by Marletta Hemphill
087 March 21, 2019
“Letters
From a War”
by Chelsea Dingman
088 March 26, 2019
“HAT”
by Bob Heman
089 March 27, 2019
“Clay for
the Potter”
by Belinda Bourgeois
#090 March 30, 2019
“The Pose”
by John Hicks
#091 April 2, 2019
“Last
Night at the Wursthaus”
by Doug Holder
#092 April 4, 2019
“Original
Sin”
by Diane Lockward
#093 April 5, 2019
“A Father
Calls to his child on liveleak”
by Stephen Byrne
#094 April 8, 2019
“XX”
by Marc Zegans
#095 April 12, 2019
“Landscape
and Still Life”
by Marjorie Maddox
#096 April 16, 2019
“Strawberries
Have Been Growing Here for Hundreds of
Years”
by Mary Ellen Lough
#097 April 17, 2019
“The New
Science of Slippery Surfaces”
by Donna Spruijt-Metz
#098 April 19, 2019
“Tennessee
Epithalamium”
by Alyse Knorr
#099 April 20, 2019
“Mermaid,
1969”
by Tameca L. Coleman
#100 April 21, 2019
“How Do
You Know?”
by Stephanie
#101 April 23, 2019
“Rare Book
and Reader”
by Ned Balbo
#102 April 26, 2019
“THUNDER”
by Jefferson Carter
#103 May 01, 2019
“The sight
of a million angels”
by Jenneth Graser
#104 May 09, 2019
“How to
tell my dog I’m dying”
by Richard Fox
#105 May 17, 2019
“Promises
Had Been Made”
by Sarah Sarai
