Right: On the Metro- credit and copyright by Gregory Luce
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 process for this poem was relatively quick and simple. Normally I get an idea, phrase, image, or some other stimulus and jot down whatever words come. After that, the process of composition starts in earnest. I generally try to build up my original few words line by line until I have a draft. I might rework that and then show it to a couple of trusted poet friends and incorporate whatever feedback that I feel is helpful. In the case of “Face,” however, I wrote the first draft in a few minutes and made only small changes thereafter.
The DC area has a large, vibrant, and supportive literary scene with numerous fine poets. A few who have been and continue to be especially important to me include Naomi Thiers (my partner), Sandra Beasley, Miles David Moore, Teri Cross Davis, Ethelbert Miller, Katherine E. Young, Holly Karapetkova, Joseph Ross, and Alan King.
https://www.facebook.com/naomi.thiers
https://www.beltwaypoetry.com/poetry/poets/names/moore-miles/
https://www.facebook.com/teri.c.davis.7
https://www.facebook.com/ethelbert.miller/
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail. I was sitting in a subway car of the Washington, DC, Metro rail. It was evening and I was heading home, though I don’t recall from where. I noticed the young woman who is the titular subject of the poem, and was struck by the details of her appearance, which somehow triggered a vague notion to write the poem. The car was nearly empty, rolling along through the tunnel, and very quiet. I was probably listening to music through headphones. Many of my poems begin their lives on subway rides (occasionally I’ve actually started writing while riding). Something about the rhythms of the journey seems to fit my voice very well.
What month and year did you start writing this poem? The incident occurred on May 11, 2016 and I wrote the first draft that same evening after I arrived home. I finished it the next morning I think.
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 only wrote one complete draft, then marked it up. I do a lot of on-the-spot revising as I type, so the subsequent “drafts” are absorbed into the final, so to speak. The major changes in finalizing a poem mostly involve linebreaks. If you compare the notebook version with the final, you’ll notice that the last five lines are essentially the same words, but broken differently. I don’t write in forms so I use linebreaks as my major craft element. I am also concerned with how the poem will appear on the page—I’m a very visual writer—so I go to typing fairly early in the process. I rarely produce many handwritten 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? Not exactly, but in revising, lines 2 and 3 underwent significant revision:
“perfect nose, delicate lips/kept neat by the straw” became “lips pursed delicately/
around the straw.” Also, in the passage from line 6 to the end, the rebreaking shortened the poem by a line, though the words didn’t change.
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? Primarily I want them to be able to picture the scene and contemplate how the simplest experiences can evoke powerful feelings. I’d also be delighted if at least a few readers find themselves emotionally identifying with the speaker’s experience.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? Lines 8 through the end, when the concrete description transitions to the speaker’s emotions and his imagined encounter with the woman. I should stress here, lest I be accused of stalking or something equally creepy, that this is not a sexual fantasy. The speaker is struck by her youth and self-possession which contrast with his own age and self-consciousness. He imagines a brief moment of tenderness that can be recalled years afterward, not unlike what a poem can accomplish. I tried here to reproduce the complex of emotions, the pang of both the imaginary encounter and the understanding that it is, in fact, a fantasy.
Has this poem been published before? And if so where? This appearance in Fledgling Rag is its first appearance in print after many years of trying to find it a home.
https://www.irisgpress.org/fledgling-rag
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
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