Tuesday, September 17, 2019

#127 Backstory of the Poem "Anathema" by Natasha Saje



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***This is #127 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. 

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

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? In the years I lived in Utah  (since 1998) I’d been accumulating a mental list of the ways in which theocracy is harmful and disturbing to me. I tried writing a poem “against” religion sometime in 2004, but it lacked zip.

      In Spring 2005, I had a Fulbright in Slovenia, and was reading Antonio Damasio’s book on Baruch Spinoza, Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain, probably in February of that year. One of the footnotes contained the text of Spinoza’s Anathema, which was the document his Jewish congregation used to exile him. (That anathema is now available on the internet.) I got the idea that I could borrow the form of an anathema to anathemize myself from religion.

Where were you when you started to actually write the poem?  And please describe the place in great detail. I was living in a clean and modern 6th floor studio apartment with a view of a church clock tower (I used it to tell time) in the center of Ljubljana, Slovenia. I had a bookcase full of the books I’d bought with my Fulbright stipend, and I read with the luxurious feeling of time stretching out for me, as I had far fewer than usual obligations that semester. Old Ljubljana, thanks to an earthquake, has unified architecture by Jože Plečnik (1872-1957) as well as a river (with a famous “triple bridge” running through it.  You can walk from north to south city limits in an hour, and from east to west in a bit more than that. I spent a lot of time walking.

What month and year did you start writing this poem? Spring of 2005.


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 usually hand write the first few drafts of poem, and I wrote these on legal pads in Pilot Gel pens. Various poet friends gave me feedback on the drafts; I remember one  (in summer 2006) suggested I use more images from actual things used in religion, for instance.

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? Many lines in the original do not appear in the final version, but my drafts are in a mass of boxes in my office closet, and I’m sorry I don’t have the time to fish them out. (I do have photocopies of another poem’s drafts I could share—I made these because I thought my students would be interested in the process.)

What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? I don’t have any particular goals for readers of “Anathema.” The whole poem was a good way to channel my rage. When I read it aloud now I have to be careful not to rush through it. My elderly aunt was at a reading I gave when the book came out and interrupted my reading to tell me to “SLOW DOWN.”

Has this poem been published before?  And if so where? The New Ohio Review published the poem in Fall of 2009, which means I probably sent it to them the previous spring. I remember the editor, Jill Rosser, saying she liked it and found it “scary.” 
           In the years between 2009 and 2014, when Vivarium was published, the poem was tweaked and refined.










Anathema


With the judgment of the priests in their amices and albs, their cinctures, stoles and chasubles,
The bishops in their mitres pointing to the sky,
The rabbis in yarmulkes and tallits, tasseled and clipped,
The saints in their garments embroidered with compass and square,
The ayatollahs in their black turbans and white beards,
And all the rest of the clergy
Who every day are more sure of their faith,
Who every day know more of the heresies
I practice and teach—

And with the consent of the elders and of all congregations
In the presence of the Bible, the Koran, the Talmud,
In their proliferate cathedrals and cloisters,
Mosques and minarets, synagogues and temples
Etcetera etcetera and with precepts
Written herein with the curse Elisha laid upon the children and with all the curses
Which are written in the law and not in the law—

And through those who have endeavored by diverse threats and laws and promises
To take me from my way
Of living outside religion,
Who will not pardon me,
Who raise a rod over my soul
Whose axes ring in my flesh—

I refuse the censer and breviary, the thurible and ciborium, the rosary and offertory,
I prefer my wine and bread unconsecrated, my soul unrepentant—

Cursed am I by day and cursed by night,
Cursed in sleeping and cursed in waking,
Cursed in coming out and cursed in going in—

Let the wrath and the fury of the righteous henceforth be kindled against me
And lay upon me all the spells they think they can conjure—

Destroy my name under every religion and 
Cut me off for my undoing from all such tribes—

So that I may live as if I am already dead.  


     Natasha Sajé’s first book of poems, Red Under the Skin (Pittsburgh, 1994), was chosen from over 900 manuscripts to win the Agnes Lynch Starrett prize, and was later awarded the Towson State Prize in Literature.  
     
     Her second collection of poems, Bend, was published by Tupelo Press in 2004 and awarded the Utah Book Award in Poetry.  Her third book of poems, Vivarium, was published by Tupelo Press in spring 2014. Her critical book about poetry, Windows and Doors: A Poet Reads Literary Theory, was published by the University of Michigan press, also in 2014. A book of personal essays, Terroir: Essays on Otherness, is forthcoming from Trinity University Press in 2020.  New projects include a fourth book of poems, a cookbook, and a book considering the US audience for poetry.

     Sajé was born in Munich, Germany, in 1955 and grew up in New York City and Northern New Jersey. She earned a BA from the University of Virginia (1976), an MA from Johns Hopkins (1980), and a PhD from the University of Maryland at College Park (1995), for a study titled, "'Artful Artlessness': Reading the Coquette in the Novel, 1724-1913."   
     Her honors include the Bannister Writer-in-Residence at Sweet Briar College, the Robert Winner and the Alice Fay di Castagnola Awards from the Poetry Society of America, the 2002 Campbell Corner Poetry Prize, a Fulbright Scholarship to Slovenia, a Camargo Fellowship in France, and grants from the states of Maryland and Utah.  
     Her poems, reviews, and essays appear (or are forthcoming) in many periodicals, including The New York Times, The Henry James Review; Kenyon Review; New Republic; Paris Review; Parnassus; Poetry; Feminist Studies; Gettysburg Review; Legacy: Journal of American Women Writers; Ploughshares; Copper Nickel; and The Writer’s Chronicle. 
     Her work has been translated into French, Slovenian, and Romanian. Sajé has been teaching in the low residency Vermont College MFA in Writing Program since 1996, and is a professor of English at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, where she directs the Weeks Poetry Series.

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
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2019/09/127-backstory-of-poem-anathema-by.html