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 can’t really go through a step-by-step process, in part because I wrote the poem ten years ago(!), but it was when I first identified the tarot symbolism across Plath’s collection Ariel, and then the title poem “Ariel” was full of Japanese images. When I wrote this poem, I hadn’t fully decoded the “Ariel” poem yet. But I was aware of this imagery, and how it all worked together, and I was feeling WWII Japan, if that makes sense, and my poem came from that.
Click on the link below to listen to Sylvia Plath read her poem Ariel
Click on the link to purchase Ariel from Amazon
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail.
I honestly don’t recall where I was when I wrote the poem. Most of my poems are written from home (but not always). Most are written right at my desk in my home office.
*Click on this link to read Syliva Plath’s “Ariel”
What month and year did you start writing this poem?
I also cannot tell you the month, but it was written about 2007, when I first found myself in graduate school and had just discovered the synchronicity between Plath’s Ariel collection and the tarot.
(BELOW: Julia Gordon-Bramer in the summer of 2007)
How many drafts of this poem did you write before going to the final? (And can you share a photograph of your rough drafts with pen markings on it?)
I’m frustatingly a computer writer, so I don’t keep drafts and have old copies with cross-outs and such, as Plath did! I write a poem and sit with it, and return to it and change a word or two here, or cut a line, or add things, and the process can take a day or many days or weeks or even months. But I don’t keep old drafts. A little bit of time and distance from my writing helps me to see if it’s good, and so my job is to remove what’s not working and enhance what is.
(BELOW: Sylvia Plath with her typewriter)
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem?
I want readers to be able to see Plath for her symbolism and understand that she is speaking in metaphor, and that her poem “Ariel” has a lot more going on than just being a poem about riding a horse, which is what most people think it to be.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why?
Poetry is such an emotional experience in general that I don’t see one part being more than another. I have just reread my own poem, and if I can return to an earlier question, the one about where I wrote it, I can say that I hope that the poem speaks for itself as far as describing the setting of the library and my research (but I did not write the poem there). And my Tokyo Rose reference has a “post” before it, because I am explaining that Plath was born after WWII, even though her poem is full of imagery from this war.
When I wrote it, it was not as if I was casting Plath as Tokyo Rose or anything like that. I was processing the WWII symbols in Plath’s “Ariel”–Plath’s “red eye” is the Japanese flag, the flakes are peeling skin, etc.I would rather not suggest Tokyo Rose because I never found evidence of her in Plath’s work. You’re seeing her in MY work.
Has this poem been published before? And if so where?
This was published in the Women Arts Quarterly Journal, Winter 2011
Julia Gordon-Bramer is the author of Fixed Stars Govern a Life: Decoding Sylvia Plath (2014, Stephen F. Austin State University Press) and the Decoding Sylvia Plath series on Magi Press. In addition to being a poet, she is a professional tarot card reader and occasional professor at Lindenwood University. Her forthcoming release is Decoding Sylvia Plath’s “Cut.” Julia’s upcoming projects this year also include The Magician’s Girl, a biography of the mysticism of Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes, and the long awaited publication of her memoir, Night Times, about the years she ran an alternative rock zine in St. Louis in the 1990s as a single mom.
Backstory of the Poem Series
001 Backstory of the Poem
“12 – 2014” from the poetry collection BEFORE THE DROUGHT by Margo Berdeshevsky published by Glass Lyre Press on September 15, 2017
https://christalcooper.com/001-backstory-of-the-poem-12-2014-from-the-poetry-collection-before-the-drought-by-margo-berdeshevsky-published-by-glass-lyre-press-on-september-15-2017/
#002 Backstory of the Poem
“82 Miles from the Beach, We Order The Lobster At Clear Lake Café”
by Alexis Rhone Fancher
https://christalcooper.com/002-backstory-of-the-poem-82-miles-from-the-beach-we-order-the-lobster-at-clear-lake-cafe-by-alexis-rhone-fancher/
#003 Backstory of the Poem
“Orange”
by Barbara Crooker
https://christalcooper.com/003-backstory-of-the-poem-orange-by-barbara-crooker/
#004 Backstory of the Poem
“Modern Matsushima”
by Sonia Saikaley
https://christalcooper.com/004-backstory-of-the-poem-modern-matsushima-by-sonia-saikaley/
#005 Backstory of the Poem
“Side Yard”
By Ellen Foos
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/01/5-backstory-of-poem-sidewalk-by-ellen.html
#006 Backstory of the Poem
“The Ringmaster”
By Susan Sundwall
https://christalcooper.com/006-backstory-of-the-poem-the-ringmaster/
#007 Backstory of the Poem
“That Night”
by Leslea Newman
https://christalcooper.com/007-backstory-of-the-poem-that-night-by-leslea-newman/
#008 Backstory of the Poem
“June Fairchild Isn’t Dead”
by Alexis Rhone Fancher
https://christalcooper.com/008-backstory-of-the-poem-june-fairchild-isnt-dead-by-alexis-rhone-fancher/
#009 Backstory of the Poem
“The Gift of the Year with Granny”
By Charles Clifford Brooks III
https://christalcooper.com/009-backstory-of-the-poem-the-gift-of-the-year-with-granny-by-charles-clifford-brooks-iii/
#010 Backstory of the Poem
“The Natural Reflection of Your Palms”
by Scott Thomas Outlar
https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/03/chris-ricecooper-caccoopaol.html
#011 Backstory of the Poem
“After Diane Beatty’s Photograph “History Abandoned”
by Anya Francesca Jenkins
https://christalcooper.com/011-backstory-of-the-poem-after-diane-beattys-photograph-history-abandoned-by-arya-francis-jenkins/
#012 Backstory of the Poem
“What I Learned This Week”
By Angela Narciso Torres
https://christalcooper.com/012-backstory-of-the-poem-what-i-learned-this-week-by-angela-narciso-torres/
#013 Backstory of the Poem
“Holidays On ICE”
By Jan Steckel
https://christalcooper.com/013-backstory-of-the-poem-holiday-on-ice-by-jan-steckel/
#014 Backstory of the Poem
“Colors”
by Ibrahim Honjo
https://christalcooper.com/014-backstory-of-the-poem-colors-by-ibrahim-honjo/
#015 Backstory of the Poem
“Ode To Disappointment”
By Marilyn Kallett
https://christalcooper.com/015-backstory-of-the-poem-ode-to-disappointment-by-marilyn-kallet/
#016 Backstory of the Poem
“Reliquary”
by Beth Copeland
https://christalcooper.com/016-backstory-of-the-poem-reliquary-from-the-poetry-collection-blue-honey-by-beth-copeland-published-by-broadkill-river-press-on-by-beth-copeland/
#017 Backstory of the Poem
‘The Swallows of Barcelona”
by Marlon L. Fick
https://christalcooper.com/17-backstory-of-the-poem-the-swallows-of-barcelona-by-marlon-fick/
#18th Backstory of the Poem
“Arterial Discombobulation”
by Juliet Cook
https://christalcooper.com/18-backstory-of-the-poem-arterial-discombobulation-from-the-poetry-collection-malformed-confetti-by-juliet-cook-published-by-poets-haven-and-distributed-by-crisis-chronicles-pre/
#19th Backstory of the Poem
“Stiletto Killer . . . A Surmise” from the poetry collection ENTER HERE
By Alexis Rhone Fancher
https://christalcooper.com/19-backstory-of-the-poem-stiletto-killer-a-surmise-from-the-poetry-collection-enter-here-by-alexis-rhone-fancher-published-by-kyso-flash-press-on-may-7-2017/
#20 Backstory of the Poem
“At Last I Can Start Suffering”
By Charles Rammelkamp
https://christalcooper.com/20-backstory-of-the-poem-at-least-i-can-start-suffering-by-charles-rammelkamp/
#21 Backstory of the Poem
“Wind Chimes”
by Marla Shaw O’Neil
https://christalcooper.com/21-backstory-of-the-poem-wind-chimes-by-marla-shaw-oneil/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIjMNNleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZQFdo94O7LKMil17FlOgVUVubHSHQ8S5Ftp4hyk0xbWHntvLahBMGmvfA_aem_tt05lJXulO3YYa6hZ1eoOw
