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? In April of 2020, I had the good fortune to be a part of a National Poetry Month poem-a-day group organized by Kimberly Southwick-Thompson, editor of the literary magazine Gigantic Sequins and Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Jacksonville State University in Alabama.
Click on the link below to visit Kimberly Southwick-Thompson’s website.
http://www.kimberlyannsouthwick.com/
Click on the link below to visit Gigantic Sequims’s website
http://www.giganticsequins.com/
Click on the link below to read the biography on Kimberly Southwick-Thompson from the Jacksonville State University in Alabama’s website
https://jsu.edu/english/faculty-staff/kimberly-southwick-thompson.html
Because I signed up for this challenge, and because I committed myself to truly doing at least one poem a day, I got to be totally immersed in this project from the end of March of that year to the start of May and it was wonderful and motivating. Kim or another group member would provide a prompt every morning and I’d open up a document and tackle it before doing just about anything else besides meditating and then having coffee. I’m an early riser by nature and this gave me a much-needed reason to get out of bed during a dark time.
Click on the link below t listen to the poets who participated in the National Poetry Mont Poem-A-Day
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail. I was in the solarium office of the third-floor apartment I share with my spouse, Martin Seay, also a writer, in Chicago.
Click on the below link to visit Martin Seah’s website
Because it was April of 2020, it was still the very start of the lengthy quarantine. Dread and uncertainty filled the air and it was hard not to despair. The poems I wrote during that month reflect that vibe, but also are pretty funny because when things are difficult and absurd (and even when they are not), laughter is crucial.
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 opening line used to have an extra phrase, in bold below, but my friend and fellow writer Logan Berry who eventually ended up publishing it advised me to trim it and he was right:
“All the neighborhood’s a stage, and the cast’s pretty diverse. An open-air place for viewing spectacles and plays.
Click on the below link to visit the twitter page of Logan Berry
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? In April of 2020, I had the good fortune to be a part of a National Poetry Month poem-a-day group organized by Kimberly Southwick-Thompson, editor of the literary magazine Gigantic Sequins and Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Jacksonville State University in Alabama.
Click on the link below to visit Kimberly Southwick-Thompson’s website.
http://www.kimberlyannsouthwick.com/
Click on the link below to visit Gigantic Sequims’s website
http://www.giganticsequins.com/
Click on the link below to read the biography on Kimberly Southwick-Thompson from the Jacksonville State University in Alabama’s website
https://jsu.edu/english/faculty-staff/kimberly-southwick-thompson.html
Because I signed up for this challenge, and because I committed myself to truly doing at least one poem a day, I got to be totally immersed in this project from the end of March of that year to the start of May and it was wonderful and motivating. Kim or another group member would provide a prompt every morning and I’d open up a document and tackle it before doing just about anything else besides meditating and then having coffee. I’m an early riser by nature and this gave me a much-needed reason to get out of bed during a dark time.
Click on the link below t listen to the poets who participated in the National Poetry Mont Poem-A-Day
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail. I was in the solarium office of the third-floor apartment I share with my spouse, Martin Seay, also a writer, in Chicago.
Click on the below link to visit Martin Seah’s website
Because it was April of 2020, it was still the very start of the lengthy quarantine. Dread and uncertainty filled the air and it was hard not to despair. The poems I wrote during that month reflect that vibe, but also are pretty funny because when things are difficult and absurd (and even when they are not), laughter is crucial.
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 opening line used to have an extra phrase, in bold below, but my friend and fellow writer Logan Berry who eventually ended up publishing it advised me to trim it and he was right:
“All the neighborhood’s a stage, and the cast’s pretty diverse. An open-air place for viewing spectacles and plays.
Click on the below link and scroll to the bottom to read Logan Berry’s biography
https://1111press.com/run-off-sugar-crystal-lake
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? Oh man, that’s tough. I hope that different readers get different things, but I suppose I hope that part of the response is that readers reflect on the intricacy of the relationship between adverse circumstances and the attitude of the person experiencing them.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? The end, which says “What do I do now? Someone tell me what to do.” The desire for meaning, the desire for an opportunity to do something good and heroic, the desire to live one’s values—all of those are wrapped up in that last line.
Has this poem been published? And if so where? Yes, it first appeared on the Runaways Lab Theater website. The Runaways are a Chicago-based company that provides what they describe as “primo weird theater” and I am grateful to them for providing a home for this poem:
https://www.runawayslab.org/dispatch/how-to-act
It is also published in the poetry collection Where Are The Snows.
Click on the link below to purchase WHERE ARE THE SNOWS from AMAZON.
Click on the below link to visit Kathleen Rooney’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
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? Oh man, that’s tough. I hope that different readers get different things, but I suppose I hope that part of the response is that readers reflect on the intricacy of the relationship between adverse circumstances and the attitude of the person experiencing them.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? The end, which says “What do I do now? Someone tell me what to do.” The desire for meaning, the desire for an opportunity to do something good and heroic, the desire to live one’s values—all of those are wrapped up in that last line.
Has this poem been published? And if so where? Yes, it first appeared on the Runaways Lab Theater website. The Runaways are a Chicago-based company that provides what they describe as “primo weird theater” and I am grateful to them for providing a home for this poem:
https://www.runawayslab.org/dispatch/how-to-act
It is also published in the poetry collection Where Are The Snows.
Click on the below link to visit Kathleen Rooney’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