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? My poem, “For Neil Young, Who Brings My Brother Back to Me,” (dedicated to my late brother, Tommy) began as a response to watching an old video of Neil Young singing his “new” song, “Old Man,” to a live audience. (It is a bit ironic, I think, that this song is about an old man, which my brother, who died in 1980 at the age of 20, never got to be). Anyway, Mr. Young looked a lot like Tommy in this piece and he had the same sort of low-key “vibe” about him that my brother always had. I remember feeling, when I first saw this video, as if a little bit of my brother had in some small way been returned to us (at least for the length of a song), and I was so grateful for it. So, I sat down at my computer and wrote the poem, made a few cuts and edits, and there it was—the thing I wanted to say.
Neil Young singing “Old Man”
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail. I was in my home office, surrounded by lovely artwork—much of it by my uncle, artist Stephen White (who does the paintings for all my book covers)—many beloved books (both poetry and prose), as well as photographs of my late parents and brother, my late grandparents, and my husband and daughter, while rays of bright sunlight flooded the room.
What month and year did you start writing this poem? It was in 2019, probably mid-summer.
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? Yes, but I don’t have them, anymore, so I am unable to share them.
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? I never have any pre-conceived idea of how I want my poems to be received. I am happy if my words move or resonate with readers in any way at all.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? Writing the entire poem was an emotional experience because doing so brought back in such a visceral way how much I miss my brother, and how much he missed out on by dying young. Perhaps the lines “…the house he didn’t get a chance/to build, married to the girl/he never met,” were the most emotionally charged for me.
Has this poem been published? And if so where? Yes, it was published in my sixth collection of poetry, A Sun Inside My Chest (Press 53, 2020), which won the 2021 International Book Award for Poetry.
Terri Kirby Erickson is the author of six collections of poetry, including A Sun Inside My Chest (Press 53), winner of the 2021 International Book Award for Poetry. Her work has appeared in “American Life in Poetry,” Annals of Internal Medicine, Asheville Poetry Review, Atlanta Review, Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness & Connection, How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope, JAMA, Latin American Literary Review, Poet’s Market, San Pedro River Review, Sport Literate, storySouth, The Christian Century, The Poetry Foundation, The Sixty Four: Best Poets of 2019, The Sun, The Writer’s Almanac, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Verse Daily, and many more. Her awards include the Joy Harjo Poetry Prize, Atlanta Review International Publication Award, Nazim Hikmet Poetry Award, Nautilus Silver Book Award, and many others. She lives in North Carolina.
https://terrikirbyerickson.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