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? “Spectral Evidence” was first drafted in May of 2016 and it is the poem that triggered my book, “Her Kind.”
Click on the below link to order HER KIND from CAVANKERRY PRESS
In 2016 after living in the Salem area for over 20 years I stumbled on the Salem Witch Trials Memorial when I was cutting through a side street.
Click on the link to visit the website of Salem Witch Trials Memorial
Up to that point I had succumbed to the witch kitsch narrative of modern day Salem but for some reason on that day in that place I was changed – these were innocent human beings who were murdered. I decided to write a poem about each of the 20 victims and this became the chapbook, “Innocents.”
Click on the below link to order INNOCENTS from Amazon.
At the same time I was experiencing the end of a long marriage and Donald Trump had been elected president. In my mind I connected these events with the witch trials and my vision for the full-length book evolved and became more complicated. It wanted/needed to connect the history of the Witch Trials, and in particular the female victims, with contemporary events that were both personal and political.
Click on the link below to read about the victims of the Salem Witch Trials
https://www.thoughtco.com/victims-of-the-salem-witch-trials-3530332
The process of writing this poem began with research on the Salem Witch Trials. While conducting this research I learned about spectral evidence. Spectral evidence refers to a witness testimony that the accused person’s spirit or spectral shape appeared to him/her in a dream at the time the accused person’s physical body was at another location. It was accepted in the courts during the Salem Witch Trials and is responsible for giving legitimacy to accusations of witchcraft and the resulting the imprisonment and executions of innocent individuals.
Click on the link below to read about The Salem Witch Trials on Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salem_witch_trials
Reverend Milborne, a prominent Boston minister, wrote a petition against the use of spectral evidence but he was silenced. In writing this poem it was important to me to convey the gravity of this type of testimony lyrically without burdening it with facts. One of the frequent accusations of witchcraft was that the apparition (of the accused) pricked the victim with a pin.
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail. At the time I wrote this poem I was renting a small apartment on the North Shore of Massachusetts. The second floor of the apartment was attic like and had a slanted ceiling. I had my desk beneath this ceiling and it was here that I wrote this poem as well as most of the other poems in Her Kind.
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. The poem became more streamlined and spare as it progressed through revisions. The original ending is below:
Therefore you
you therefore not a dream
puncturing each pore
though you were
never really there therefore
who saw you
in the flesh not flesh
saw therefore knows
and thus can say, you.
Do you understand?
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem?This poem was important in setting up the premise of “Her Kind” which focuses on innocent individuals, particularly women, who are unfairly accused based on patriarchal assumptions and misinterpretations.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? The entire poem was emotional for me to write and very important for me to get right. I wanted to convey the horror of this type of testimony without belaboring it. I felt that would give it more power. The most emotional lines for me are: “and because she said it was / it was / therefore you / therefore not a dream …
Has this poem been published? And if so where? Spectral Evidence was originally published in Nimrod International Journal.
And part of the poetry collection Her Kind.
Cindy Veach is the author of Her Kind (CavanKerry Press) a finalist for the 2022 Eric Hoffer Montaigne Medal, Gloved Against Blood (CavanKerry Press), a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and Massachusetts Center for the Book ‘ Must Read,’ and the chapbook, Innocents (Nixes Mate). Her poems have appeared in the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, AGNI, Michigan Quarterly Review, Poet Lore and Salamander among others. She is the recipient of the Philip Booth Poetry Prize (selected by Mary Ruefle) and the Samuel Allen Washington Prize (selected by Marilyn Nelson). Cindy is co-poetry editor of Mom Egg Review.
Click on the below link to visit Cindy Veach’s website.
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