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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.
“Divorce”
by Joan Barasovska
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?
“Divorce,”
the pivotal poem in my first book of poetry, Birthing Age (Finishing Line Press, 2018) (https://www.finishing
linepress.com/), was born of another poem,
“Emancipation,” which it replaced in the accepted manuscript.
ibiblio.
org/pjones/
blog/about-
paul-jones/), had read the manuscript and urged me to remove “Emancipation.” That poem’s epigraph is from Abraham Lincoln: “If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.” I used an extended metaphor of a female house slave who contemplates murder of the master to explain my plight as a subjugated wife and the courage it took, “the final insurrection,” to leave the marriage. The last line is “I am my Great Emancipator.” I was surprised by Paul’s advice. He said that using a slavery metaphor for my life was unacceptable, as I’m a white, middle-class woman. I thought that, being a man and knowing nothing about a woman’s experience, he couldn’t understand the poem.
blog/about-
paul-jones/), had read the manuscript and urged me to remove “Emancipation.” That poem’s epigraph is from Abraham Lincoln: “If slavery is not wrong, then nothing is wrong.” I used an extended metaphor of a female house slave who contemplates murder of the master to explain my plight as a subjugated wife and the courage it took, “the final insurrection,” to leave the marriage. The last line is “I am my Great Emancipator.” I was surprised by Paul’s advice. He said that using a slavery metaphor for my life was unacceptable, as I’m a white, middle-class woman. I thought that, being a man and knowing nothing about a woman’s experience, he couldn’t understand the poem.
But doubts lingered,
so I showed it to another poet friend, Crystal Simone Smith (http://crystal
simone
smith.com/), an African American woman. Crystal is also a poetry editor and her warning was sufficient. I had to pull “Emancipation” and replace it with a poem just as significant and pivotal to the book. She said that though the poem would resonate with those in “this thankless role,” she agreed with Paul. “There is a term used in the black community: ignorant white bliss. I know your heart is in that poem and your intent is honorable, but I would rather you not risk being labeled that way.” She was right. I had not been enslaved, and this was not my metaphor. I needed a metaphor just as compelling but one that arose from my own ancestry. I left for the Gathering of Poets in Winston-Salem, a conference I’ve attended for five years. I took my favorite route, 54 West to the interstate, rural, gentle, and green in early spring.
simone
smith.com/), an African American woman. Crystal is also a poetry editor and her warning was sufficient. I had to pull “Emancipation” and replace it with a poem just as significant and pivotal to the book. She said that though the poem would resonate with those in “this thankless role,” she agreed with Paul. “There is a term used in the black community: ignorant white bliss. I know your heart is in that poem and your intent is honorable, but I would rather you not risk being labeled that way.” She was right. I had not been enslaved, and this was not my metaphor. I needed a metaphor just as compelling but one that arose from my own ancestry. I left for the Gathering of Poets in Winston-Salem, a conference I’ve attended for five years. I took my favorite route, 54 West to the interstate, rural, gentle, and green in early spring.
I was struggling for that metaphor and it arrived while I drove and
became the first words of a new poem: “In the shtetl of my heart…” The shtetls
in the Pale of Settlement in late 19th and early 20th
century Russia were the homes of my grandparents before they emigrated to
Philadelphia. Here was the image of oppression that opened the poem to me. The
following day, Saturday, I was distracted during the conference workshops and
readings.
Where were you when you started to actually
write the poem? And please describe the
place in great detail. The poem was written in the driver’s seat of my
2005 silver Honda Accord in the empty parking lot of the Dollar General in
Graham, North Carolina, fifteen miles from my home.
What month and year did you start writing
this poem? It was late March, 2018, on a sunny Sunday morning.
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?) There were many drafts, but fewer than I
usually write because of the time I’d spent writing it in my head while driving
and during stolen moments at the conference. My big problem was the final line,
as I explain below. Unaccountably, I can’t find the notebook where I wrote this
poem—I always compose on paper—or the notes from the 2018 Gathering of
Poets. I have poetry notebooks going
back to the ‘60’s, but not this one.
Which part of the poem was the most
emotional of you to write and why? The line “…across waters I had
never seen” still brings tears to my eyes.
Leaving a very long marriage at 60, leaving its protection and security for the
complete unknown, without plans, was not unlike my grandmother’s leaving her
town of Novgorud, Lithuania, for Philadelphia in 1908.
Divorce
In
the shtetl of my heart I hoed weeds in rows
of
cabbages and potatoes. Mud crusted the hem
of
my black wool skirt. I stoked an iron stove
to
boil the thin peasant soup that fed my family.
Daily,
I tied a faded babushka under my chin.
I
muttered curses on the Tsar’s head and wished
him
dead. In the village of my marriage,
I
hid kopeks in a twisted rag, tokens of my rage.
At
last, by moonlight, I trudged miles,
footsore
in worn boots, to book passage
in
steerage across waters I had never seen.
A
lifted lamp waited by the foreign shore.
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
#106 June 01, 2019
“i sold
your car today”
by Pamela Twining
#107 June 02, 2019
“Abandoned
Stable”
by Nancy Susanna Breen
#108 June 05, 2019
“Cupcake”
by Julene Tripp Weaver
#109 June 6, 2019
“Bobby’s
Story”
by Jimmy Pappas
#110 June 10, 2019
“When You
Ask Me to Tell You About My Father”
by Pauletta Hansel
#111 Backstory of the
Poem’s
“Cemetery
Mailbox”
by Jennifer Horne
#112 Backstory of the Poem’s
“Relics”
by Kate Peper
#113 Backstory of the
Poem’s
“Q”
by Jennifer Johnson
#114 Backstory of the
Poem’s
“Brushing My Hair”
by Tammika Dorsey Jones
#115 Backstory of the
Poem
“Because the Birds Will
Survive, Too”
by Katherine Riegel
#116 Backstory of the
Poem
“DIVORCE”
by Joan Barasovska
“DIVORCE”
by Joan Barasovska
