Sunday, June 2, 2019

#107 Backstory of the Poem "Abandoned Stable" by Nancy Susanna Breen



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***This is #107 in the 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.

#107 Backstory of the Poem
“Abandoned Stable”
by Nancy Susanna Breen 
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? The inspiration for the poem came one wet evening in early January when I spotted the remains of a Nativity scene on a church lawn; just a stained glass-like wooden frame and a mass of limp straw. I started gathering lines and images in my head right away, and I may have dashed out a rough first draft soon after, but I think it was mid-spring before I tackled the actual writing.
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem?  And please describe the place in great detail. In this case, I did most of the writing at the computer, not counting the mental work I did on it before and after I'd started an actual Word document. I write in my head when I'm walking, cleaning, doing needlework, and especially when I'm falling asleep or first wake up in the morning.

What month and year did you start writing this poem? I started writing it in 2016. I'm fairly sure it was after New Year's but before January 6. I reference the Epiphany in the poem as still being in the future; and after January 6 I'm able to let go of the Christmas season just finished and stop mourning its passing.
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?) Unfortunately, I don't retain my revisions, even though I know a lot of poets do. I write the way a whittler works a piece of wood: I chip and slice and sand and smooth until I get the finished piece I want, but I don't hang on to the wood shavings and sawdust. Also, I find it hard to declare any version of any poem "final." Even when I've gathered previously published poems for chapbooks, I've continued to revise those poems where I see fit. If the first few lines of a poem count as a "draft," and if even minor tweaks constitute a new "draft," I guess this poem may have gone through ten or more drafts.
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? I'm not sure what lines I may have added or cut. I do know I worked to add more music to the poem, such as the last line with its "muffling bursts of mirthless snow." I remember at some point being dissatisfied with the "finished" poem because it seemed flat, so I worked to punch up the language and imagery.
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? I guess my point is a sense of joy and celebration shouldn't be relegated to storage with the lights and ornaments or tossed as trash on the curb like the tree and gift wrap. I know other cultures go on with festivals and the like right on through the winter. I like that idea. And I guess this is just another way of expressing Scrooge's “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year." I'm also admitting that I find it as hard as anyone else does to accomplish this. 

Which part of the poem was the most emotional for you to write and why? The entire poem was emotional because I get so depressed when the Christmas season is over. Everything seems so faded and wilted, even before the "12 days" are up on the Epiphany. It's a challenge to maintain the joy when the world moves on so quickly, and when winter seems so grim once the celebration has died.

Has this poem been published before?  And if so where? Initially this poem was published in The Best of Ohio 2016, the anthology of prizewinners from the annual Ohio Poetry Day contests sponsored by the Ohio Poetry Association (it won second in its category). It's also in my upcoming chapbook, Burying the Alleluia, to be published in May by Finishing Line Press (https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/burying-the-alleluia-by-nancy-susanna-breen-nwvs-146/ ).

ABANDONED STABLE
Three days before the Epiphany
and already the mangers are empty.
The plywood stables stand like
stage backdrops of failed plays
that closed out of town.
Beds of old straw, flattened
by New Year's rain, reveal
no evidence of the Family
who sought shelter and celebrated a birth.
O Wise Wanderers
in your crowns and robes, don't let
these lonely ruins dissuade you from stopping.
Pause long enough to revive
our dissipated joy
before you resume your search
for the MIA Savior.
January deserves to be as golden
and spicy as December, its gloom
brightened by the Star Without Borders
even as the electric stars blink off
in evergreens and along porch rails,
even as the jubilant hymns wane
in muffling bursts of mirthless snow.

Nancy Susanna Breen is a poet, freelance writer, and editor. Her poetry has appeared in many publications, including Atlanta Review, The Donut Book, and The Practicing Poet: Writing Beyond the Basics. Her chapbooks include Rites & Observances and Burying the Alleluia (Finishing Line Press) and How Time Got Away (Pudding House Publications). She’s a past editor of Poet’s Market for Writer’s Digest Books, and her articles have appeared in Writer’s Digest, Poet’s Market, Writer’s Market, and The Craft & Business of Writing. She has served as screening or final judge for poetry competitions sponsored by Pennwriters, Writer’s Digest, The National Federation of State Poetry Societies, and several individual state poetry associations. She lives in Loveland, Ohio.
Nancy Susanna Breen
nancy.breen@fuse.net
www.nudged2write.com (blog)


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