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? The reason I used the Villanelle form was that I had recently read some villanelles, and it seemed an apt form to use for a poem of exploration and introspection, due to the form’s repetition of certain lines (sometimes with variation) at regular intervals. So the beginnings of the poem were very literal, based on the exact question that the poem frames
Click on the link to read about the poetic form Villanelle
https://www.litcharts.com/literary-devices-and-terms/villanelle
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail. This poem was conceived when I visited Longwood Gardens in June of 1996, as a side-trip from the West Chester University (Pa.) Poetry Conference. It was a shock to see that the topiary garden there was in disarray! I started writing while at the conference.
Click on the below link to read about the Longwood Gardens
https://longwoodgardens.org/gardens/topiary-garden
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? It was just a process of revising and refining the lines. I tend to do a lot of revision before considering a poem ready to publish.
Click on the below link to read about the vest villanelles of all time in English poetry.
What do you want readers of this poem to take from the poem? Whatever they like!
Click on the link below to hear Dylan Thomas read his villanelle poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night”
Which part of the poem was the most emotional for you to write and why? The whole process was emotional, but the reason this scene resonated with me so deeply — and struck me as a ready-made metaphor—was that my life was in disarray at that time, as my marriage was beginning to end.
Has this poem been published? And if so, where? Yes, several times. It was originally published in The Formalist (a journal of poems in “received forms,” published from 1990 through about 2004).
It appeared in the anthology “Villanelles,” edited by Annie Finch and Marie-Elizabeth Mali (Everyman’s Library, 2012).
Click on the link below to visit Annie Finch’s website
Click on the link below to visit Marie-Elizabeth Mali’s Website
Click on the link below to order the anthology VILLANELLES from Amazon.
It later appeared in my book “Humor Me” (David Robert Books 2006).
Click on the below link to order HUMOR ME from Amazon
Click or copy the link below to contact Claudia Gary via email.
claudiagary611@gmail.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