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***This is the sixty-fifth
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.
“Summer
1970, The University of Virginia Opens to Women in the Fall”
by Alarie Tennille
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 can’t claim full credit for conceiving this poem. Being
in the first class of women at the University of Virginia was certainly
life-changing, viewpoint-changing, and the beginning of feminist struggles I’ve
faced since. I write a lot of poems about childhood, but I hadn’t touched this
pivotal point in my life. A writer friend came up to me at the end of a poetry
reading and asked, “Why haven’t you written any poems about UVa?” 
Nevertheless, my
friend’s question got me thinking about how to tackle the topic. I decided to
begin at the beginning. My older brother had gone to UVa and repeatedly told me
I couldn’t. I don’t think that was onery big brother talk, but his attempt to
prevent heartbreak down the road. He was delighted when I could attend, thanks
to a lawsuit brought by women turned away.
Would I do it all
again? Yes, but at the time I had no idea of the problems I’d face. I’d been
the only girl in my high-school trig class and enjoyed that. I never realized
that faculty members and upper classmen would confront me to say, “No one wants
you here.”
Where were you when you
started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great
detail. Almost all my poems
are written at night or in the wee hours of morning, and the hours have become
more and more wee since I retired in 2012. I use magic notebooks that never seem to
fill up. I select them with great care. Each one lasts me 3-4 years, because I
write my first drafts and very little else in them. They’re lovely, hard-cover,
8.5 x 11 inch, spiral-bound notebooks that lie flat. Although my poems tend to
be short, I have large handwriting and don’t like writing on a cramped page.
Time stops or else I slip into another dimension. I have no idea whether
I’ve been writing ten minutes or three hours, which is why I like to start late
when I have no appointments or phone calls to interrupt my writing trance.
My ritual begins
before the writing, however. I rarely sit and stare at a blank page. I
generally carry the idea for the poem around in my head for a few days, so that
I have some idea of how to begin. Sometimes the title comes first, as it did
for this poem. More often I will add it later or change whatever I first named
it.
How many
drafts of this poem did you write before going to the final? I have no idea how many
drafts this poem took. In a sense, it was over 40 years in the making. I don’t
count drafts or dissect my work habits. So much of my writing seems to come
from a subconscious state that I don’t want to mess that up. In a poem about
Claude Monet, I wrote, “True genius is making it look easy,” and I try to
preserve the illusion that it comes easily to me.
Which part
of the poem was the most emotional for you to write and why? I tried to understate the emotion and let it come
through in the sense of foreboding at the end. It’s easy for others to see a
civil rights pioneer as a hero or a martyr, when most of us are just seeking
our fair share of what life offers. I was an A student who wanted to go to my
prestigious state university and become a professional writer. I didn’t name my
hardest emotions, like fear for my safety.
Anything
you would like to add? Thank
you, Christal Ann Rice Cooper, for this chance to share my voice and craft. (Below: Alarie Tennille Web Blog Logo)
Summer 1970, The University of Virginia
Opens
to Women in the Fall
Mama calls me a pioneer. I call
me
a student - tagging along
after
my older brother like always,
ignoring
his taunts. You can’t
come here. Somehow I knew
I
would.
At thirteen, I fell in love
with
Thomas Jefferson’s Rotunda
and
vistas of the Blue Ridge.
I’m
not trying to make history,
just
taking my place in it.
Brave?
No, timid and half blind.
Every
stranger and new school
scares
me. That’s life.
I
don’t know I’ll need extra
courage.
That will come later.
http://alariepoet.com/
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
