Monday, January 25, 2021

Caroline Smith’s “Removal” is #239 in the never-ending series called BACKSTORY OF THE POEM

 *The images in this specific piece are granted copyright:  Public Domain, GNU Free Documentation Licenses, Fair Use Under The United States Copyright Law.


The other images are granted copyright permission by the copyright holder, which is identified beneath each photo. 


**Some of the links will have to be copied and then posted in your search engine in order to pull up properly


*** The CRC Blog welcomes submissions from published and unpublished poets for BACKSTORY OF THE POEM series.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


***Caroline Smith’s “Removal” is #239 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. (Right: Caroline Smith in 2020. Copyright my Caroline Smith)


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? A number of elements came together that sparked this poem. The street where I live in Wembley is mostly HMO’s (Houses in Multiple Occupation). It is a migrant community where tenants come and go frequently. This means there are always discarded mattresses in the street. When the poem came to me, I was helping a young friend to flat hunt and coping with the increasing infirmity of my elderly parents. (Left: Photo credit and copyright by Caroline Smith)

        

The drama of the mattresses was what I first wanted to write about. I walk past them every day. I also work with asylum seekers and undocumented migrants so I’m very aware of homelessness and the impact on people of living one step away from destitution. When we were viewing a flat for my friend, I realised the sitting tenant was being evicted. This was the moment you are asking about, that propelled me to write. I set the poem in autumn and used the abundance in John Keats’ (Right) poem ‘To Autumn’ as an element to work off.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44484/to-autumn 

      

 I try not to start a poem until I have more than just a vague idea. I store quirky things in my notebooks and head until I get the glue for the poem. I then write it fairly quickly. Having said that, I do often go back to the drawing board and completely cut or change direction. I try not to get too precious about the poem and make myself be prepared to cut any line or element if it doesn’t move the poem forward. It can also take ages for the glue for a poem to come and so frustratingly I have loads of scraps of paper with ideas lying around and not enough poems! (Left: Caroline Smith's writing space. Copyright by Caroline Smith)

 

Where were you when you started to actually write the poem?  And please describe the place in great detail. When I started putting the scraps of paper together, I was actually in my study which used to be a children’s bedroom that now has a pull-out couch rather than a bed. My desk is in front of a window that looks down the side of the house. To the left of my desk is a bookcase with the poetry books I like to read over again. The ones I have read and probably won’t be referring to are in another bookcase behind me to the right of the door. The floor is always totally covered in notes and ideas and drafts of poems so that it is impossible to get to my desk without stepping on them. (Right: view from Caroline Smith's writing space.  Copyright by Caroline Smith)

 

What month and year did you start writing this poem? I wrote the poem in October 2018. (Left: Caroline Smith in October 2018. Copyright by Caroline Smith)

 

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 remember how many drafts there were before it got to this stage – five or six for sure. 

 

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? This is an earlier draft that I happened to save. One line that didn’t make the published poem was, ‘It’s a transitional time of year’. I hesitated over this line. I tend to over explain and not trust the reader enough, so I think I was right to leave it out, although it makes the first verse one line shorter than the others which still bothers me. (Right and Below Left: Caroline Smith's drafts of "Removal"  Copyright by Caroline Smith.)


What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? In my poetry I like to juxtapose very different images and scenarios, but it’s important that they don’t seem forced or unrelated. I think the sudden introduction of my father in the last verse in this poem is a good example. 


Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? (The last verse in the poem) is the most emotional part of the poem and it springs the connection. I felt empathy for the tenant who would be evicted for my friend to get a home, but it was the experience of seeing my father coming to terms with losing his home of forty years that was the heart of the poem.

 

Has this poem been published before?  And if so where? The poem was published in Acumen 95 September 2019. I hope it will be one of the poems in the new collection I’m writing.

https://www.acumen-poetry.co.uk/acumen-94-may-2019/?doing_wp_cron=1611597962.1185429096221923828125 


Removal


Landlords are shifting out old tenants.

It’s the season of mattresses.

Checked, stained,

they are dumped in the road overnight.

Cramped in half, their

split seams erupt yellow foam

like crops of toadstools

under this grey wash

of a Saturday autumn sky.


A piece of dark cloth is tacked to the window

of this maisonette my pregnant friend

is viewing to buy. Her first home.

The tenant has been issued a Section 21,

so we could only get access now 

the owner’s swept in to open the door.

The tenant follows us from room to room

leaning her cheek against the door frame,

watching. It’s the same stare

I saw on my father’s ivory face.


I was digging up plants from his garden,

he had agreed I could,

after he’d finally accepted 

he had to move.

I thought he was asleep,

but he’d followed me out

shuffling slowly after me.

He stood balancing with his two sticks,

just watching at a distance

from the middle of the path.


Caroline Smith lives in Wembley where she works as the immigration and asylum caseworker for a London MP. Although originally trained as a sculptor, Caroline has now published three books of poetry. Her most recent, 'The Immigration Handbook' published by Seren Books (https://www.serenbooks.com/) in 2016 was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award. It was translated into Italian, in the summer of 2020; 'Il manual dell'immigrazione'. 


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Sunday, January 24, 2021

Luanne Castle’s “Scrap” is #238 in the never-ending series called BACKSTORY OF THE POEM

 *The images in this specific piece are granted copyright:  Public Domain, GNU Free Documentation Licenses, Fair Use Under The United States Copyright Law.


The other images are granted copyright permission by the copyright holder, which is identified beneath each photo. 


**Some of the links will have to be copied and then posted in your search engine in order to pull up properly


*** 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


***Luanne Castle’s “Scrap” is #238 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. 


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? You could say that the poem “Scrap” has been twelve years in the making. I’ve been writing a memoir of sorts since 2008. This story is also titled Scrap (subtitle: The Salvaging of a Family). The narrative version is about my relationship with my father and my own childhood. Of necessity, it also has a lot to do with my father’s “issues” and with his absent father. (Above Left: Luanne with her father Rudy. Copyright permission by Luanne Castle)

A friend who read my memoir manuscript suggested I write poems to include in the book. I decided to write a poem that would get to the heart of the memoir and use the same title. The writing of this poem is one of the only times I started with a title before I wrote a poem. (Right: Luanne with her father Rudy in 1978. Father and daughter stand in front of Stanwoods, a luggage store her father owned. Copyright permission by Luanne Castle)

I began with writing out a few lines on a legal pad, but I quickly transferred those lines over to my laptop. While I like to jot down the first images and phrases, I don’t like to stay with paper too long as it begins to define what the poem will look like. My handwriting is rather large and difficult to read. Once I get some words on the computer screen, there are more directions a poem can go. Paper is very limiting to me. I discard the paper within days, and my feeling is I can’t wait to eliminate traces of my “stupid” first lines. (Left: Luanne's writing space.  Copyright by Luanne Castle)

Over the next few months I returned over and over to this poem because it felt very important to me, but while many of the lines and images were good the overall poem was horrible. For the most part, as I made changes, even one or two little ones, I saved the new draft, but didn’t keep the old. In this case, I did save a couple of the early drafts.

Finally, I felt satisfied with the poem. I must have felt it was done when I didn’t noticed anything else that jarred me with the wrong tone or image. (Right: Luanne's father Rudy in the middle, between his older sister and twin brother. Copyright by Luanne Castle)


Where were you when you started to actually write the poem?  And please describe the place in great detail. I wrote the first lines of “Scrap” while sitting at the kitchen table with the legal pad and a hotel pen. I like hotel pens because they tend to flow perfectly and are not too thick for my fingers. The round table sits in front of glass doors to the garden outside. I prefer to work in the kitchen, rather than my office, because five of my six cats hang out in the kitchen.  When I transferred to my laptop, I was still in the kitchen.  (Luanne's father Rudy in the tree. Copyright by Luanne Castle)


What month and year did you start writing this poem? I began the poem on that legal pad on 23 August 2019. 


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 have no idea how many drafts I wrote as I tend to go back and make little adjustments very often. Some poems take more revision than others. “Scrap” took a lot of revision because it was an emotionally difficult poem. (Above Right  Luanne's father, Rudy, far left. Copyright by Luanne Castle)


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? A lot of lines from that first draft did not make it very far. They were eliminated early on. For example: “Small piece of cotton too / skimpy for an infant’s romper.”  In fact, I believe that about ¾ of the original draft was omitted.  I found it necessary to get a lot of words on the page and then cut drastically. Then I rearranged. What is now the first stanza was originally the final stanza of four.


What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? I hope that readers can feel the pain of the boy at growing up without a father and the burdens of the grandmother. And that there is a bond of love between the daughter, the father, and the father’s mother.  They all share a desire to piece together the shards of their lives into art. (Right: Luanne's grandmother Marie Klein. Copyright by Luanne Castle.)


Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? The first two lines—“A scrappy boy fuses / himself a father out of wants”—is emotional for me because my father was a street kid and had to create himself a father in his imagination. I know the emotional toll this took on my father. Also, “the secret / middle name shared under / its double-locked hiding place” hits me in the solar plexus when I read it because we all suffered from the secrecy involved around my grandfather. 



Has this poem been published before?  And if so where? My poem “Scrap” was published in the December 2020 issue of Anti-Heroin Chic. 

http://heroinchic.weebly.com/blog/poetry-by-luanne-castle


Luanne Castle's Kin Types (Finishing Line), a chapbook of poetry and flash nonfiction, was a finalist for the 2018 Eric Hoffer Award. Her first poetry collection, Doll God (Aldrich), was winner of the 2015 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award. A Pushcart and Best of the Net nominee, she studied at the University of California, Riverside (PhD); Western Michigan University (MFA); and Stanford University. Her writing has appeared in Copper Nickel, TAB, Glass, Verse Daily, American Journal of Poetry, Broad Street, and other journals. 

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

#117 Backstory of the Poem
“NEW YEAR”S EVE 2016”
by Michael Meyerhofer

#118 Backstory of the Poem
“Dear the estranged,”
by Gina Tron

#119 Backstory of the Poem
“In Remembrance of Them”
by Janet Renee Cryer

#120 Backstory of the Poem
“Horse Fly Grade Card, Doesn’t Play Well With Others”
by David L. Harrison

#121 Backstory of the Poem
“My Mother’s Cookbook”
by Rachael Ikins

#122 Backstory of the Poem
“Cousins I Never Met”
by Maureen Kadish Sherbondy 

#123 Backstory of the Poem
“To Those Who Were Our First Gods”
by Nickole Brown

#124 Backstory of the Poem
“Looking For Sunsets (In the Early Morning)”
by Paul Levinson

#125 Backstory of the Poem
“Tracy”
by Tiff Holland

#126 Backstory of the Poem
“Legs”
by Cindy Hochman

#127 Backstory of the Poem
“Anathema”
by Natasha Saje

#128 Backstory of the Poem
“How to Explain Fertility When an Acquaintance Asks Casually”
by Allison Blevins

#129 Backstory of the Poem
“The Art of Meditation In Tennessee”
by Linda Parsons

#130 Backstory of the Poem
“Schooling High, In Beslan”
by Satabdi Saha

#131 Backstory of the Poem
““Baby Jacob survives the Oso Landslide, 2014”
by Amie Zimmerman

#132 Backstory of the Poem
“Our Age of Anxiety”
by Henry Israeli

#133 Backstory of the Poem
“Earth Cries; Heaven Smiles”
by Ken Allan Dronsfield

#134  Backstory of the Poem
“Eons”
by Janine Canan

#135 Backstory of the Poem
“Sworn”
by Catherine Zickgraf

#136 Backstory of the Poem
“Bushwick Blue”
by Susana H. Case

#137 Backstory of the Poem
“Then She Was Forever”
by Paula Persoleo

#138 Backstory of the Poem
“Enough”
by Kris Bigalk

#139 Backstory of the Poem
“From Ghosts of the Upper Floor”
by Tony Trigilio

#140 Backstory of the Poem
“Cloud Audience”
by Wanita Zumbrunnen

#141 Backstory of the Poem
“Condition Center”
by Matthew Freeman

#142 Backstory of the Poem
“Adventuresome Woman”
by Cheryl Suchors

#143 Backstory of the Poem
“The Way Back” 
by Robert Walicki

#144 Backstory of the Poem
“If I Had Three Lives”
by Sarah Russell

#145 Backstory of the Poem
“Reservoir”
by Andrea Rexilius

#146 Backstory of the Poem
“The Night Before Our Dog Died”
by Melissa Fite Johnson

#147 Backstory of the Poem
“Pileated”
by David Anthony Sam

#148 Backstory of the Poem
“A Kitchen Argument”
by Matthew Gwathmey

#149 Backstory of the Poem
“Insulation”
by Bruce Kauffman

#150 Backstory of the Poem
“I Will Tell You Where I’ve Been”
by Justin Hamm

#151 Backstory of the Poem
“Comfort”
by Michael A Griffith

#152 Backstory of the Poem
“VAN GOGH TO HIS MISTRESS”
by Margo Taft Stever


#153 Backstory of the Poem
“1. Girl”
by Margaret Manuel

#154 Backstory of the Poem
“Trading Places”
by Maria Chisolm

#155 Backstory of the Poem
“The Reoccurring Woman”
by Debra May

#156 Backstory of the Poem
“Word Falling”
by Sheryl St. Germain

#157 Backstory of the Poem
“Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup of 7,000 Jews Detained in an
Arena”
by Liz Marlow

#158 Backstory of the Poem
“Why Otters Hold Hands”
by William Walsh

#159 Backstory of the Poem
“The Invisible World”
by Rocco de Giacoma

#160 Backstory of the Poem
“Last Call”
by Ralph Culver

#161 Backstory of the Poem
“ALIVE”
by David Dephy 

#162 Backstory of the Poem
“Mare Nostrum”
by Janice D Soderling

#163 Backstory of the Poem
“Winnipeg Noir”
by Carmelo Militano

#164 Backstory of the Poem
“Needlepoint Roses”
by Jason O’Toole 

#165 Backstory of the Poem
“Singing, Studying on Whiteness, This Penelope Strings”
by Jeanne Larsen

#166 Backstory of the Poem
“How To Befriend Uncertainty”
by Prartho Sereno

#167 Backstory of the Poem
“Shostakovich: Five Pieces”
by Pamela Uschuk

#168 Backstory of the Poem
“Bouquet for Amy Clampitt”
by Peter Kline

#169 Backstory of the Poem
“Heartbroken”
by Catherine Arra

#170 Backstory of the Poem
“Silence – a lost art”
by Megha Sood

#171 Backstory of the Poem/ May 09, 2020
“Horribly Dull”
by Mark DeCharmes

#172 Backstory of the Poem/ May 12, 2020
“Celebrating His Ninety-Second Birthday the Year his Wife Died”
by Michael Mark

#173 Backstory of the Poem/ May 14, 2020
“Night Clouds in the Black Hills” 
by Cameron Morse

#174 Backstory of the Poem/ May 18, 2020
“I’ve Been In Heaven For Long”
by Evanesced Dethroned Angel

#175 Backstory of the Poem/ May 20, 2020
“Tutti-Frutti”
by Barbara Crooker

#176 and #177 Backstory of the Poem/ May 25, 2020
“My Small World” and
“My Mistake”
by Tina Barry

#178 Backstory of the Poem/ June 05, 2020
“Against Numbers”
by Andrea Potos

#179 Backstory of the Poem/ June 15, 2020
“Wish”
by Julie Weiss

#180 Backstory of the Poem/ June 20, 2020
“The Tree That Stood Beside Me”
by Carly My Loper

#181 Backstory of the Poem/ June 23, 2020
“Electric Mail”
by Julie E. Bloemeke 

#182 Backstory of the Poem
June 24, 2020
“Her First Ten Days”
by Julieta Corpus

#183 Backstory of the Poem
June 26, 2020
“Outside My House Is A Guava Tree”
by Dr. Ampat Varghese Koshy

#184 Backstory of the Poem
July 2, 2020
“Torpor”
by Victor Enns

#185 Backstory of the Poem
July 5, 2020
“A Way of Life”
by Dan Provost

#186 Backstory of the Poem
July 6, 2020
“The Alabama Wiregrassers”
by Charles Ghigna

#187 Backstory of the Poem
July 7, 2020
“The Seer”
by Kathleen Winter

#188 Backstory of the Poem
July 11, 2020
“Stuck At Home”
by Valerie Frost

#189 Backstory of the Poem
July 13, 2020
“Between the Earth and Sky”
by Eleanor Kedney 

#190 Backstory of the Poem
July 14, 2020
““ΜΕΡΕΣ  ΥΠΟΜΟΝΗΣ/ Days
of patience” 
by Eftichia Kapardell’

#191 Backstory of the Poem
July 15, 2020
“Threnody by the President for Victims of COVID-19, Beginning with a Line from Milosz”
by Ralph Culver

#192 Backstory of the Poem
July 16, 2020
“Will Be Done”
by Tom Hunley

#193 Backstory of the Poem
July 17, 2020
“The Love of Two Trees”
by Hussein Habasch

#194 Backstory of the Poem
July 18, 2020
“June Almeida”
by Lev RI Ardiansyah

#195 Backstory of the Poem
July 19. 2020
“After Grano Maturo”
by Matthew Gavin Frank

#196 Backstory of the Poem
July 20, 2020
“Practice”
by Linda Neal Reising

#197 Backstory of the Poem
July 21, 2020
“Will Be Done”
by Tom C Hunley 

#198 Backstory of the Poem
July 22, 2020
“Shroud”
by Ted Morrissey

#199 Backstory of the Poem
July 23, 2020
“Being In Love at Fifty”
by Anne Walsh Donnelly

#200 Backstory of the Poem
July 25, 2020
“Star pinwheel poem”
by Andrea Watson

#201 Backstory of the Poem
July 30, 2020
“Gentle Women, Adult Female Persons, and Housewives in Indonesia ♀” 
by Kimberly Burnham

#202 Backstory of the Poem
July 31, 2020
“192”
by Don Yorty

#203  Backstory of the Poem
August 01, 2020
“I want to unfold the disease”
by Vanessa Shields

#204 Backstory of the Poem
August 06, 2020
“A Bone of Contention with the Ghost of John Lennon Over Strawberry Fields Forever”
by Ruth Weinstein

#205 Backstory of the Poem
August 07 2020
“Statement by the Pedestrian Liberation Organisation”
by Thomas McColl 

#206 Backstory of the Poem
August 08 2020
“Un Poco Pequeño”
by Damon Chua

#207 Backstory of the Poem
August 10, 2020
“mary lou williams’s piano workshop (after Fred Moten)”
by Makalani Bandele

#208 Backstory of the Poem
August 18, 2020
“Roll Credits by KCK”
by Casey Kirkpatrick aka KCK

#209 Backstory of the Poem
August 21, 2020
“Ancient Pyramid”
by Mark Tulin

#210 Backstory of the Poem
August 23, 2020
“How Far the Storm?”
by Charles Malone

#211 Backstory of the Poem
August 27, 2020
“89 Tears”
by Robert Carr
  
#212 Backstory of the Poem
August 28, 2020 
“Food and Water”
by Brooke McNamara

#213 Backstory of the Poem
August 30, 2020
“To hold, to hollow”
by Meghan Lamb

#214 Backstory of the Poem
September 01, 2020
“Would It Be Too Much”
by Justine Quammie

#215 Backstory of the Poem
September 15, 2020
“Darkest days. . .Loneliest nights”
by Aaron R

#216 Backstory of the Poem
September 23, 2020
“About My Death”
by Jennifer Barber
 
#217 Backstory of the Pome
October 09, 2020
“Leash of Deer”
by Catherine Graham

#218 Backstory of the Poem
October 11, 2020
“Sticky”
by Susan Tepper

#219 Backstory of the Poem
November 22, 2020
“Penguins”
by Volodymyr Bilyk 

#220 Backstory of the Poem
December 05, 2020
“the creature of bad habits”
by Erik Fuhrer

#221 Backstory of the Poem
December 17, 2020
“Amaterasu”
by Nan Lundeen

#222 Backstory of the Poem
December 28, 2020
“Disclaimer”
by Randall McNair

#223 Backstory of the Poem
December 30, 2020
“Broken Rainbows”
by Steve Wheeler

#224 Backstory of the Poem
December 31, 2020
“Elegy for Michael”
by Paul Nelson

#225 Backstory of the Poem
January 01, 2021
“No One Is Home”
by Katrina Lippolis

#226 Backstory of the Poem
January 03, 2021
“Dream Truth”
by Rachael Ikins

#227 Backstory of the Poem
January 04, 2021
“Hologram”
by Lucille Lang Day

#228 Backstory of The Poem
January 08, 2021
“Transition”
by Bartholomew Rothrauff

#229, 230, and 231 Backstory of the Poems
January 10, 2021
“Armed With Imagination”
“Overthrown”
“We Siblings Three”
by Randal Burd

#232 Backstory of the Poem
January 13, 2021
“Adventsmarkt in Wurzburg”
by Arthur Turfa

#233 Backstory of the Poem
January 18, 2021
“Death of a Carousel”
by Richard Weiser

#234 Backstory of the Poem
January 19, 2021
“Moon Child”
by Carol Berg

#235 Backstory of the Poem
January 20, 2021
“In That Good Time”
by Kyla Houbolt

#236 Backstory of the Poem
January 22, 2021
“Epilogue: 10 Years Later”
by Lannie Stabile


#237 Backstory of the Poem
January 23, 2021
“Awards Season”
by Maija Haavisto


#238 Backstory of the Poem
January 24, 2021
“Scrap”
by Luanne Castle
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2021/01/luanne-castles-scrap-is-238-in-never.html 


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