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? I began writing “Ghazal of the Virgin Mary” during one of my MFA residencies. The poem grew out of a writing assignment I set for myself in an attempt to harness the creative energy of the residency while also providing structure to the busy, sometimes chaotic week. At the time, I was working with formal poetry—sonnet sequences, villanelles, pantoums, ghazals—while thematically delving into the work that would end up forming my first book, Descent (Finishing Line Press, 2020). I was fascinated by female saints and Vestal Virgins and was exploring commonalities between their stories and those of myself and women in my family. The task I set out for myself was to write a ghazal in the voice of Saint Mary. I worked on the poem throughout the residency and finished it probably a month or so later.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghazal#Poetic_form
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vestal_Virgin
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail. Most likely, I was in the Marran Theatre at Lesley University when I began writing this poem. A large auditorium on the section of campus where residencies were held, Marran Theatre was the nightly gathering place for readings from faculty, guest writers, and graduating students. I would always leave dinner a little bit early and make my way across campus alone so that I could spend a few quiet minutes in the auditorium jotting down ideas from the day. I also distinctly remember working on the poem in the backseat of my grandparents’ car as they drove me home one evening.
What month and year did you start writing this poem? January of 2012.
Right: Jennifer with her grandparents on January of 2012.
Copyright by Jennifer LeBlanc.
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?) Although I don’t still have the originals, I would imagine I wrote two or three preliminary drafts followed by a couple of near-finished drafts. This was typical of my writing process at the time. I would write the first draft quickly by hand—always by hand!—and make a few rounds of major revisions in my notebook (Below) before typing it up and editing with a fine-tooth comb.
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? Without the early drafts I wrote by hand, I can’t say, but I can compare the final version to the penultimate draft. Originally, the first line read, “When a messenger cuts from the shelf of heaven to earth,” but I revised it to, “When a messenger descends from the shelf of heaven to earth.” At the time, the edit was made in service to the sonic qualities of the poem; I liked the direct, potentially violent nature of “cuts,” but it sounded too jarring to my ear. In hindsight, the edit worked equally well for the thematic aspects of my book, with “descends” providing a pleasing echo to the title and title poem.
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? I would like readers to leave this poem with a sense of humanization, rather than sanctification, of Mary. I would like readers to consider the physical, mental, and emotional burden of being the mother of such an important figure. At the time of writing this poem, I was grieving the loss of my Catholic faith following my decision to leave the Church. This choice was grounded in feminism and my belief in equal rights. I took issue with the way the Church idealizes motherhood and the many sexist messages I heard growing up in this religion. While I was confident in my decision and the ethical necessity of it, I was still very much grieving some of what I had loved and lost in the process.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? Most emotional for me was grappling with and attempting to capture the duality of emotion, of criticizing something that I still, at least in part, loved. I imagine this is why I insisted on the sensory details of everyday life—of eating, of sustaining the body—in the poem. It provided something immediate and tangible that I could hold on to.
Has this poem been published before? And if so where? Yes, this poem is published in my first full-length collection, Descent (Finishing Line Press, 2020,
https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/descent-by-jennifer-leblanc/).
Jennifer LeBlanc earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University. Her first full-length book, Descent, was published by Finishing Line Press (2020) and was named a Distinguished Favorite in Poetry (2021) by the Independent Press Award. Individual poems have been published in journals such as The Adirondack Review, CAIRN, The Main Street Rag, and Melusine. Jennifer was nominated for a 2013 Pushcart Prize and works in the English Department at Tufts University.
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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