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? “Donation Street” is an example of a poetry that I do maintain is cubism (after the Cubism in the arts) and belongs to a sequence of cubist poems that I have collected into a manuscript (unpublished, as of this writing) entitled, Theatreland.
What is Cubism?
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/c/cubism
Cubism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubism
When considering the transposition of cubism (the application of Cubist concepts and procedures) from the canvas to the page, it is basic to consider the analogy between the geometric structure of the canvas (of the painting, of what you see) and the grammatical structure of the poetry (of the articulation, of the poetic line, of what you read). This analogy has its basis in, or, results in, faceted form—a “facet” is one side of something many-sided, and here we see the cubist geometrizing, the prismatic, pyramidal forms. To facet grammar is to split the logic, to break it up, but not to break it up gratuitously or “by chance.” Rather, one must understand the parts of grammar and their purpose—as it’s not just a matter of breaking up syntax, of putting syntax into disarray (it is not a “simple” matter of juxtaposition, or collage)—for it is in the grammar that the poetry exists and is to be displayed.
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail. I was living in Forest Hills Gardens, in the top floor rooms, or, what was at one time the housekeeper’s rooms, in what was a Tudor-style mansion, and the walls had these arches that curved up from the floor to the ceiling following the structure of the roof. Here’s where my desk was, and it was like living in a castle, the shadow-play on these arches. It was Gothic.
The house was owned by an Italian scholar, Lilia Subrizi, who was teaching at Columbia University. There was her husband (who had to do with Olivetti typewriters—in addition to my Mac Color Classic computer, I was also on an Olivetti Lettera 32!) and her son also living in the house. I was there with my wife, Carol, and our cat, Geppetta.
Click to go to Lilia Ghelli Subrizi’s Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/people/Lilia-Ghelli-Subrizi/100008900525429/
At this time, I was not content with what was my voice, which was, really, practiced on imitating the voices on the recordings—I was deeply into Plath (her own recordings, of course), and the Yeats poems, and just imitating what I heard. Applying this, consciously or unconsciously, to my own poems, I was not at all at ease with myself.
Click to hear Sylvia Plath read her poems
Click to hear William Butler Yeats read his poems
https://www.openculture.com/2012/06/rare_1930s_audio_wb_yeats_reads_four_of_his_poems.html
What month and year did you start writing this poem? It began around springtime, 1996, as part of a batch I was working on. My routine was to begin on stationery, by hand—I was using Crane stationery, as I would for my letter writing—and I woud tape the poems to the wall. I could easily work on three poems at a time, this way, having them displayed this way. I like to be on my feet (I actually prefer to stand when I am writing) so this allowed me to walk right up to the work-page, or, passing by give it a glance, to see if anything is suggested to me or if anything occurs to me. It is not the case that I would write a poem and then break it up into cubist form, but rather I, from the start, would begin my articulation in this cubist ideation. It was never a simple disintegration or disaggregation, but a matter of developing an organic narrative style and technique.
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? If the job of the poet is to make available to the reader a certain poetic/aesthetic experience, then with this poem, this language-scape, I intend an extraordinary reader experience—not just a formal display, but a story, indeed a psychology. (When asked, is there knowledge in poetry, I always answer, Yes, and that knowledge is psychology!)
The Psychology of Poetry: Understanding the Perspective of
a Poem
In this poem, “Donation Street,” a lover beseeches his lover to see that while their situation is not, perhaps, ideal, they can nevertheless enjoy it for what it is—and to invite him up, even when there is no moon in the sky.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? As part of my experimentation with cubism, I began writing in couplets, which, intuitively, organically felt very natural, very comfortable for me. I always felt the sonnet form (the perfect “thought-form”) appealed to me, but, really, this almost immediately became for me simply a fourteen-line form. At this stage, however, it was the couplets as such that interested me.
Has this poem been published? And if so where? It was first published in The Germ #2, Summer 1998.
Most of the BACKSTORY OF THE POEM 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