#304 Backstory of the Poem: Leslea Newman’s “13 Ways of Looking at Life Before the Virus”

Leslea Newman. Website Logo Photo.

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 the final form? I was having a hard time writing at the onset of the pandemic, so I decided to use Wallace Stevens’ poem, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” as a model and see what I could come up with. I have done this many times, writing “Thirteen Ways of Looking at My Mother,” “Thirteen Ways of Looking at My Cats,” and “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackboard” (which actually was written because of a typo I made when citing the title of the original Wallace Stevens poem). I started with a list of memories/ideas and then developed each stanza.

Read “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45236/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-a-blackbird

Listen to “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird read by Wallace Stevens himself.
https://search.aol.com/aol/video;_ylt=AwrC5pk84vlg_lgAeAtnCWVH;_ylu=c2VjA3NlYXJjaAR2dGlkAw–;_ylc=X1MDMTE5NzgwMzg3OQRfcgMyBGFjdG4DY2xrBGNzcmNwdmlkAzJGZFF2akV3TGpGVTRTV2R1eDB3N0FBd016VXVNUUFBQUFEc1dVMEoEZnIDY29tc2VhcmNoBGZyMgNzYS1ncARncHJpZAMEbl9yc2x0AzYwBG5fc3VnZwMwBG9yaWdpbgNzZWFyY2guYW9sLmNvbQRwb3MDMARwcXN0cgMEcHFzdHJsAwRxc3RybAM3OQRxdWVyeQN3YWxsYWNlJTIwc3RldmVucyUyMHJlYWRzJTIwVGhpcnRlZW4lMjBXYXlzJTIwb2YlMjBsb29raW5nJTIwYXQlMjBhJTIwYmxhY2tiaXJkBHRfc3RtcAMxNjI2OTg5MTc3?fr2=sb-top-&q=wallace+stevens+reads+Thirteen+Ways+of+looking+at+a+blackbird&s_it=sb_top&s_qt=&ei=UTF-8&v_t=comsearch&type=z-hr-17%2Cz-br-ch%2Cz-os-mac%2Cz-st-us-il%2Cz-pg-1%2Cz-dtl-dd%2Cz-pr-https%2Cz-mvt-guin-us%2Cz-coreus-auth%2Cz-pf-coreus#id=1&vid=44f1606d2c159a74257dfac39ad22b3d&action=view

Watch the Documentary on Wallace Stevens

https://search.aol.com/aol/video;_ylt=AwrDQyl54vlgvwUA5T9nCWVH;_ylu=c2VjA3NlYXJjaAR2dGlkAw–;_ylc=X1MDMTE5NzgwMzg3OQRfcgMyBGFjdG4DY2xrBGNzcmNwdmlkA0FvMG81REV3TGpGdEZDNVl5VWJjbndFbk16VXVNUUFBQUFEdi5WNl8EZnIDY29tc2VhcmNoBGZyMgNzYS1ncARncHJpZAMwV3dTVVlUZFFQQ29EeU5tZUJmUGNBBG5fcnNsdAM1OQRuX3N1Z2cDNARvcmlnaW4Dc2VhcmNoLmFvbC5jb20EcG9zAzAEcHFzdHIDBHBxc3RybAMEcXN0cmwDMjAEcXVlcnkDd2FsbGFjZSUyMHN0ZXZlbnMlMjAEdF9zdG1wAzE2MjY5ODkzNDA-?fr2=sb-top-&q=wallace+stevens+&s_it=sb_top&s_qt=&ei=UTF-8&v_t=comsearch&type=z-hr-17%2Cz-br-ch%2Cz-os-mac%2Cz-st-us-il%2Cz-pg-1%2Cz-dtl-dd%2Cz-pr-https%2Cz-mvt-guin-us%2Cz-coreus-auth%2Cz-pf-coreus#id=3&vid=a8e352c53d04a65323110de59bde8eaa&action=view

Where were you when you started to actually write the poem?  And please describe the place in great detail. I wrote the poem while sitting on my couch in my writing room, which is where I do all my writing (unless I am traveling and then have been known to write on trains, planes, buses, and in hotel rooms—all pre-Covid of course). My room contains a couch, a desk with my laptop and printer on it, a closet full of office supplies, and many bookshelves that hold copies of all the books I have written and all the anthologies/journals/magazines in which my writing appear. Various awards of mine are hanging on the wall. And most importantly, behind my writing couch there is a perch for my current resident feline goddess Mitzi to lay on so that she can look out the window while I write. She is great company!

Credit and Copyright by Leslea Newman

What month and year did you start writing this poem? I started writing this poem at the beginning of March, 2020.

Leslea Newman in March of 2020. Copyright by Leslea Newman.

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? There were no lines from previous drafts that do not appear in the final poem, though some lines were changed. For example, the fourth stanza originally read:

I remember my best girlfriend

and I facing each other, shrieking

“Miss Mary….Mack! Mack! Mack!”

and the loud satisfying smack!

as our four palms slapped.

When the poem was accepted for publication byThe Sun, the editor pointed out that some readers might now know what “Miss Mary Mack” is, so he asked me to make that clear. So the stanza became:

I remember my best girlfriend

and I facing each other to play

a hand-clapping game, shrieking

“Miss Mary….Mack! Mack! Mack!”

and the loud satisfying smack!

as our four palms slapped.

What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? I would like readers to take a minute to pause and remember what life was like pre-pandemic, and to acknowledge our shared humanity. We have all been through a brutal experience and I hope reading my poem will inspire understanding and compassion.

Leslea Newman with her mother. Copyright by Leslea Newman.

Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? The stanza about untying my mother’s hands from the railings of her hospital bed and the stanza about holding my father’s hand were definitely the most emotional because both of my parents are gone now (my mother died in 2012 and my father died in 2017). I miss them terribly. At the same time, I am glad they were not around for the pandemic which would have been incredibly difficult for them.

Leslea Newman’s mother. Copyright by Leslea Newman.

Has this poem been published?  And if so where? The poem has had quite a life! On March 31, 2020, it appeared in New Verse News, an excellent website that publishes current event poems.

http://www.newversenews.org/

Then it appeared in the June 2020 issue of The Sun.

https://thesunmagazine.org/issues/534/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-life-before-the-virus

Then it was published in Summer 2020 issue of the alumnae magazine of The University of Vermont, from which I graduated in 1977.

The University of Vermont alumnae magazine. Summer 2020 issue

Most recently, it was featured on the Mass Poetry’s website in their series called “The Hard Work of Hope” on June 23, 2021.

https://masspoetry.org/62321-newman

Lesléa (pronounced “Lez-LEE-uh”) Newman is the author of 75 books for readers of all ages, including A Letter to Harvey Milk; October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard; I Carry My Mother; The Boy Who Cried Fabulous; Ketzel, the Cat Who Composed; and Heather Has Two Mommies.

Leslea Newman in October of 2021. Copyright by Leslea Newman.

She has received many literary awards, including creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Massachusetts Artists Foundation, two American Library Association Stonewall Honors, the Massachusetts Book Award, the Association of Jewish Libraries Sydney Taylor Award, the Highlights for Children Fiction Writing Award, a Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fiction Writing grant, the James Baldwin Award for Cultural Achievement, the Cat Writer’s Association Muse Medallion, and the Dog Writers Association of America’s Maxwell Medallion. Nine of her books have been Lambda Literary Award Finalists.

Ms. Newman wrote Heather Has Two Mommies, the first children’s book to portray lesbian families in a positive way, and has followed up this pioneering work with several more children’s books on lesbian and gay families: Felicia’s Favorite Story, Too Far Away to Touch, Saturday Is Pattyday, Mommy, Mama, and Me, and Daddy, Papa, and Me.

She is also the author of many books for adults that deal with lesbian identity, Jewish identity and the intersection and collision between the two. Other topics Ms. Newman explores include AIDS, eating disorders, butch/femme relationships, and sexual abuse. Her award-winning short story, A Letter To Harvey Milk, has been made into a film and adapted for the stage.

In addition to being an author, Ms. Newman is a popular guest lecturer, and has spoken on college campuses across the country including Harvard University, Yale University, the University of Oregon, Bryn Mawr College, Smith College and the University of Judaism. From 2005-2009, Lesléa was on the faculty of the Stonecoast MFA program at the University of Southern Maine. From 2008-2010, she served as the Poet Laureate of Northampton, MA. She has taught fiction writing at Clark University and currently she is a faculty mentor at Spalding University’s School of Creative and Professional Writing.

Recently published books include the poetry collection I Carry My Mother (Golden Crown Literary Society Award and Massachusetts Center for the Book “Must Read” title); picture books Ketzel, The Cat Who Composed(Massachusetts Book Award, Sydney Taylor Award, and Cat Writers Association Best “Litter-ary” Award); Sparkle Boy(Massachusetts Center for the Book Honor Title); and Gittel’s Journey: An Ellis Island Story (National Jewish Book Award).

Forthcoming books include the adult poetry collection I Wish My Father(Headmistress Press, 2021) and the picture books Song of Los Coquís/La Canción De Los Coquís (Lee & Low, 2020); What Daddies Do(Abrams, 2021) and I Can Be….Me!(Lee & Low, forthcoming).

Contact Leslea Newman at her website by clicking below.

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

Feel free to 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

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Follow:
%d bloggers like this: