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? Typically, a poem will begin for me with an image or a line rising to the surface of my consciousness and echoing in my head for a while before I have the courage to shape it into a poem. In the case of “First Flown,” I was processing so many emotions in the months leading up to my oldest daughter leaving home for college. The line that percolated was “What will I do now with these breasts still heavy with milk.” I was struggling with the desire to continue to mother her, but I also felt peace and joy in letting her go. So I moved the word “still” from before the word “heavy” to after it, to convey my ambivalence in still having metaphorical milk, but also recognizing that the time had come to be still and let go. I also wanted to write a poem that celebrated her and expressed my awe in the young woman she had become, so it became a brief retrospective of our time together, surmounting challenges that only love can overcome. It took me about a month of drafting, walking away, revising, walking away, until I whittled it down to its current form.
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail. I wrote down the initial lines in a small journal I kept in my car. Eventually I transferred the lines and wrote the poem in a bigger journal where I did my drafting and writing in an upstairs room of my house. In that “room of my own” a comfortable turquoise blue chair, surrounded by my favorite poetry books and family photos. The chair faced a window that looked out onto a holly tree where brilliant red cardinals would visit throughout the day, reminding me of my daughter perched and ready to fly.
What month and year did you start writing this poem? I started writing this poem in April of 2016.
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? voracious love for this infant/ who shook off her hospital ankle bracelet/ refused swaddling, and grew/into the child who taught herself/to walk and read and suffer/ the loud noises that made her cry/ and me to love
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? I would like readers to glimpse the mutual bond of a mother and child raising each other to conquer fear, and to feel the complex emotions of a mother letting go and watching her child take flight.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? The whole poem was emotional to write. If I had to choose one part, it would be the last stanza. My mixed feelings of grief and grace still make me well up.
Has this poem been published? And if so where? The poem is included in my debut collection, Poised for Flight, forthcoming on August 12 from Finishing Line Press.
Preorders run through June 17 at
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/poised-for-flight-by-rosie-prohias-driscoll/
Rosie Prohías Driscoll is a Cuban-American educator and poet. The daughter and granddaughter of Cuban exiles, she was raised in Miami, Florida and writes about themes of identity and exile, loss and renewal, grief and grace. Her poems have appeared in numerous online and print publications, including Acentos Review, Mas Tequila Review, Pilgrimage Magazine, Literary Mama, Temenos Journal, Saw Palm: Florida Literature and Art, SWWIM Every Day, Sin Fronteras/Writers Without Borders, Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality and the Arts, and Gyroscope Review, and she was a finalist for the 2020 Orison Poetry Prize. She teaches high school English in Alexandria, Virginia, where she lives with her husband, greyhound, and a host of ancestral spirits who keep her rooted and grateful. When not teaching or writing, she relishes spending time with friends and family and researching her family tree.
https://rosiepdriscollpoet.com
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