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? This poem slowly evolved over a period of at least ten years. A repetition of sound started to imprint on my mind: the sound of the train whistle, the ferry horn when the boat leaves the harbor. Then, of course, the changing seasons came into play, the beauty of the surrounding trees. I wanted to describe where I was writing from so that the reader could visualize this little dwelling place I so love.
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail. I needn’t describe for you where I started to write this poem, as I hope the first stanza gives you a good description.
To fill it out, I could tell you the street I live on is quiet, the road narrow and if you walk through the woods, you come to the Long Island Sound. The house is quite small, but has good light. Solitude and quiet are important to me when I write.
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? There were no lines I remember taking out. It was a gradual adding on process, then refining the placement of words, how they fit into the whole, each an observance of the daily miracles of our lives.
The octopus was one of the most recent lines I added. I read a book (which is buried somewhere in my bookcases) and was astonished at how we are so alike. I inserted the stanza after the stanza of the bivalves. This led me to place the following line in its own stanza:
So many questions still not answered.
Click on below link to read “Octopuses Are More Like Humans Than You Might Expect”
https://www.insidehook.com/article/science/octopuses-more-like-humans-might-expect
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? That we and our fellow creatures living with this earth are more connected than we realize. We each have our own individual perceptions & intelligence that helps us to survive. We need to leave space for each other.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why? That’s a hard question to answer! What started out as an observation of the rhythms of sound morphed into a meditation on how connected we are to even bivalves, wasps and octopuses. The miracles we daily encounter— watching a baby grow.
Click on below link to purchase LONG ISLAND POEMS from Allbook Books
https://www.allbook-books.com/html/long_island_poems.html
Anything you would like to add?This is the book cover. I design & take the photos for the covers of all my poetry books. I love every step of the process of putting together a book. I couldn’t do it without the excellent work of small publisher Walter Harris (Mankh) from Allbook Books, who has guided me through three books.
Click on the link below to read about Walter Harris (Mankh)
https://www.allbook-books.com/html/about_mankh.html
When I venture out to read. During the pandemic, of course, no one ventured out. I belong to The Long Island Poetry Collective, and we set up Zoom readings for poets who have been isolated. We’ve continued to host readings. It keeps us quite busy, but we discovered there are many writers who cannot travel for various reasons.
Click on the below link to visit Barbara Southard’s Facebook Page
https://www.facebook.com/barbara.southard2/
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