#286 Backstory of the Poem: Shana Ritter’s “What’s Gone”

Shana Ritter. Copyright by Shana Ritter.

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? This poem was written in response to a prompt: Tell us about snow but don’t use the words: snow, white, powder, ice, flake, blanket. I also drew from a photo I had taken as I was out walking my dog Emmy. It came pretty much as a spill, almost word for word. The reference to the woman crossing Antarctica is from a memoir I read quite a few years ago about a woman who cross country skied solo across the continent.

Shana Ritter’s dog Emmy. Credit and Copyright by Shana Ritter.

A bit of background I actually created the prompt for a writing group, that is part of our local writer’s guild. Third Sunday Write used to meet at the library and a colleague and myself would take turns offering prompts and exercises to whoever would come. With the pandemic we tried a few things but ended up with a private Facebook group where I monthly offer prompts, folks respond to those and then we offer each other “readback” lines.

Where were you when you started to actually write the poem?  And please describe the place in great detail. I was writing at my desk, as I mentioned after a walk. The windows in my study face south and west, the south facing looks out on a stretch of yard that disappears into woods and the west is just woods. I live outside of a college town in south central Indiana, a land of rolling hills, creeks and ravines. I often feel I am outside even when I am inside so the light, the weather, the season is always an integral part of my setting. We had a foot or more of snow down for close to 2 weeks, very unusual here and it was just beginning the melt. While I usually write first in long hand this was written on the computer.

Shana Ritter’s writing desk and her views from the desk. Credit and Copyright by Shana Ritter.

What month and year did you start writing this poem? This was written in February 2021. The first draft and then two revisions in which I cut some words (especially and, of) shifting line breaks, moving into “balanced” stanzas.

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?) This – unlike most of my poems, did not change much from the original first draft. I don’t have any captures of those changes.


 
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/stairs-of-separation-by-shana-ritter/

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? All the lines were included. Again, not so typical for me. I do keep a “treasure box” so that when I do cut a line that I’m fond of I can tell myself I am keeping it for another piece.

https://www.shana.ritter.com

What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? There is no “message” in the poem, but I hope to convey a sense of beauty, a sense of loss, and a wonder at the natural world. Oh yes, and that I am talking about snow.

Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? The second stanza holds the most emotion for me, though I can’t say it was more of an emotional experience to write it. The notion of unfathomable distance, of solitude in the midst of grandeur, awe, especially writing from within the pandemic.

Has this poem been published before?  And if so where? This is a very new poem, less than a month old and I have only shared it with the Third Sunday Write group that I mentioned in question1. I am currently working on a poetry manuscript, which I thought was done but decided it needed to include the poems of this past year.

What’s Gone

Crisp and brilliant it covered the ground

no sounds but the muffled night, the shift

of wind, the quiet glimmered tree branches

reaching, reaching into the dark grown light.

My own footsteps sank, and I imagined

the journey of the woman who slid her away

across the southernmost continent across trails

unmarked, across a distance I could not fathom.

Now there is only mud where it disappeared

the pond and creek stirred into water high

reaching past the marking lines. No remnant remains

no glow, no light, as if all that fell had only been rain.

                      Shana Ritter

                      February 2021

All Backstory of the Poem LIVE LINKS can be found at the very end of the below feature:

http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2021/02/will-justice-drakes-intercession-is-251.html

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

Share and Enjoy !

Shares
Follow:
%d bloggers like this: