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? It took a long time for me to process the loss of my son. I tried and failed at least half a dozen times to sort out the emotions involved until finally realizing that his image, from a photograph, was what seemed most indelible to me. That resulted in more emotion, more false starts. The poem took about 6 or 7 years in the making.
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail. My desk, my pc. My office, on the fourth floor of my house, is a quiet, peaceful place. A place to concentrate, which is vital to the process of writing.
What month and year did you start writing this poem? Sorry, I don’t remember, exactly. It took at least 5 years with a grief counselor before I could begin. I compare it to the time lapse that occurred following the Holocaust, when people could not recover themselves enough to write, let alone speak, address the pain.
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? Humans are visual creatures. 80% of the information we receive comes through our eyes. The poem addresses this and the resultant fact our other four senses are quite subordinate.
As for the subject matter, the emotional content of the poem, there is a mixture of grief over a lost son as well as one of the overriding aspects of grief, which is anger.
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https://www.judithrrobinson.com/
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? All of it, of course. But perhaps the most difficult was the second stanza which contains the specific imagery, the descriptive material of the lost son, and the last stanza, which expresses an anger bordering on rage.
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https://californiastatepoetrysociety.org
Has this poem been published? And if so where? The poem was published first in California Quarterly,
Volume 42, # 1.
Also published in BUY A TICKET, WordTech Editions, 2022, New and Selected Poems by Judith R Robinson.
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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