#314 Backstory of the Poem: Megha Sood’s “My Body Is Not An Apology”

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 started writing this poem in response to the Feminist Book Title Challenge by Whisper and the Roar, a feminist literary collective. I wanted to write a poem that should not come across as a request but as an unfettered declaration.  I wanted to put the angst and pain of all the years of living in a society filled with rules and regulations carved around the subjugation of women. As you read the poem, you notice the portion of the line “This Body is Not an Apology” repeated in every verse. When I was writing the poem I was unaware of the literary device anaphora but wanted to reiterate the anger I was filling inside to express on paper.

What is Anaphora?

So each verse of the poem highlights a different dimension of struggle a female body has to go through, where it’s conforming to the cookie cut rules of the society about beauty, about motherhood, and so on and so forth. I urge my readers to read this poem not as a request but as a triumphant declaration to the world where our bodies are always seen as a threat.

Where were you when you started to actually write the poem?  And please describe the place in great detail. I was sitting on my couch which faces the balcony overlooking the Hudson River. (Below) This is the usual place where I sit and compose my poems. My house overlooks the Hudson pier and is the usual spot for joggers and runners. Across the river, I have an uninterrupted view of the Manhattan skyline, which looks like a queen necklace in the evening. The beauty of flying seagulls and the crimson tinge of the rising sun have secretly seeped into a lot of my poems.

What month and year did you start writing this poem? I started writing this poem in the month of September 2019 as a response to the Feminist Book Title Challenge hosted by the Christine Ray of the Brave and Reckless Blog. My three poems were selected and were published on the site. The poem was finally published on the website on September 06, 2019.

Brave and Reckless Blog. Image of founder Christine Elizabeth Ray. Web Logo Photo

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? I wrote this poem as a stream of consciousness and other than editing the poem for its style and form I never took out any lines from the poem. I wanted to write this poem as a declaration and celebration of women’s bodies and never wanted to edit any lines that spoke to me at that instant.

The view from Megha Sood’s writing space. Credit and Copyright by Megha Sood.

 What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? My Body is Not an Apology” is written as a response to the body-shaming and gender-based discrimination the women have been subjugated for generations. How women are expected to follow the cookie-cutter rules of the patriarchal society for generations How they have been asked to hide their spider veins, crows feet. This poem of mine should be treated like a clarion call that our bodies are not an apology but prayer and an unfettered declaration. It’s an armor for us that gives us the strength to face the struggles in our lives.

Standing by the Rags 1988-9 Lucian Freud 1922-2011 Purchased with assistance from the Art Fund, the Friends of the Tate Gallery and anonymous donors 1990 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/T05722

Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why?

Rough Draft. Credit and Copyright by Megha Sood.

The following verses for me were the most emotive and evocative as it brings out the constant struggles faced by women living in a patriarchal and misogynistic society. It speaks about gender, color, sexual, work-based discrimination, and the cookie-cutter rules we women as subject to each and every day.  When we are constantly reminded of the benchmarks of beauty and perfection in this society that tries to put a leash on our lives.  The lines in the second verse came out as a war cry, as a deafening scream living a suffocated life.

Motherhood by Fernando Botero.

Has this poem been published before?  And if so where? The poem has been first published in the feminist literary journal, Whisper and the Roar edited by Georgia Park.

https://www.facebook.com/GeorgiaParkPoet/

Georgia Park Facebook Logo Photo.

I’m also a member of the literary collective. Since then the poem has been part of multiple poetry readings as a featured poet like Brroklyn based Brownstone Poets, OceanSide Library, In Full Color AAPI Month celebration, SETU Women Poets Celebration, When Women Speak, Spectrum Publishing Afternoon Poetry, and Open Road Poetry ONE year  Anniversary Celebration.

Megha Sood. Copyright by Megha Sood.

The poem is also part of my chapbook My Body is Not an Apology, Finishing Line Press, 2021 and Full-length collection My Body Lives Like a Threat by FlowerSong Press.

https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/my-body-is-not-an-apology-by-megha-sood/

https://www.flowersongpress.com/

Megha Sood is a New Jersey-based Pushcart Nominated Award-winning poet, editor, author, and blogger. She earned her Postgraduate Degree in Computer Application (M.C.A)and Bachelors in Computer Sciences (B.Sc.) from India. She is an Assistant Poetry Editor for the UK-based Arts and Literary Journal MookyChick, Literary Partner in the “Life in Quarrantine” Project by Standford University, USA, and Associate Editor with Literary  Journal “Life and Legends”. She is the author of a chapbook (“A Potpourri of Emtions”, Local Gems Press, NY). Chapbook (“My Body is Not An Apology”, Finshing Line Press, 2021) and Full Length (“My Body Lives Like a Threat”, Flower Song Press, 2021).  She co-edited anthologys (“The Medusa Project”, Mookychick) and (“The Kali Project”, Indie Blue Press.

https://meghasworldsite.wordpress.com/category/megha-sood-poetry/

Left: Megha Sood at the New York City Poetry Festival in 2021
Right: Megha Sood in her home in 2021.
Both are Copyright by Megha Sood.

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.

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The CRC Blog welcomes submissions.  Contact CRC Blog via email at caccoop@aol.com or personal Facebook messaging at https://www.facebook.com/car.cooper.7

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