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? I’m a taphophile, which means I spend a lot of time in cemeteries, many of which date back over one hundred years.
Click on the below link to read “What’s a Taphophile? A Love of Cemeteries Explained” by Minda Powers-Douglas, BA in English
https://www.joincake.com/blog/taphophile/
The occasion for this poem arose one day as I walked through such a place. My attention was drawn to a crucifix carved into one of the wizened monuments. The figure of Jesus was badly worn, and I began to speculate about what led to its condition. Weather, of course, would have been the major factor, but I also envisioned grief-stricken mourners caressing that tortured figure as they prayed, raged, etc..
This was also around the time a massive Saharan dust plume had reached the U.S., and one of the effects of that arrival could be seen in some particularly-intense sunsets. Anyone who knows me is well-aware of my contentious relationship with religion. The concept of our fallen state and need of salvation (symbolized in that crucifix), combined with the wonder of that dust plume, came together into a kind of personal revelation which the poem seeks to share with a wider audience.
Click on the link below to read ‘Why Massive Saharan Dust Plumes Are Blowing Into the US” by Matt Simon
https://www.wired.com/story/saharan-dust-plumes-are-blowing-into-the-us/
Click on the link below to view the dust plumes bowing into the United States
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? When I began writing poems (over three decades ago) I always started with a pen and paper until I had a rough draft (“blob”) I felt had earned its right to make it into electronic form for fine-tuning, etc.. I kept those notebooks for many years, but I am an obsessive divestor of “things,” and I threw them out long ago.
Anyway, once I began composing directly on the computer, I no longer had a record of the various versions of poems, so I could never give you any specific lines. What I can do is tell you I am also an obsessive reviser. One of the earliest lessons I learned about writing is that no line or word or image is above landing on the cutting room floor, so to speak. One must maintain a willingness to abandon these things, no matter how appealing, if they don’t serve the poem. There would have been many lines I discarded.
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem? The heart of this poem beats in the final six lines where the speaker (in this case, that’s me) proclaims his disbelief (and distaste) for the idea of the necessity of “salvation,” as well as the concept that such had to be secured through a blood sacrifice. To me, that’s an idea that should have been abandoned long ago.
The most emotional part of the poem for Frank Paino to write was the last six lines “because they attempt to address the ineffable, which is always a failed prospect.” Credit and Copyright by Frank Paino.
At its heart, the message of the poem plays on one possible interpretation of the conclusion of Keats’, “Ode on a Grecian Urn:”
“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”
Click on the below link to read “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44477/ode-on-a-grecian-urn
In the case of my poem, the thought that sand, created over millions of years through the breakdown of quartz and other materials, is able to be lifted into the sky, to drift across continents, whitening our daylight skies and washing the gloaming light in a palette of scarlet and gold… conjures a kind of bloodless “sacrifice” that is so utterly powerful and beautiful it puts to shame the idea that we could or should be saved through the horror of a tortuous murder.
In short, I have no use for the tired myth of our wickedness and need of salvation which, along with so many other such beliefs, has led to so much division, hatred, misunderstanding, and ill-will. If there is such a thing as god, I’d like to believe that being would preach a gospel of beauty… not blood.
Has this poem been published? And if so where? I’m honored to say it was published in the most recent issue of Gettysburg Review. (Autumn 2022, 34:1)
https://www.gettysburgreview.com/store/#!/Volume-34-Number-1/p/483289767/category=20192291
Click on the link below to visit Frank Paino’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