#23 Backstory of the Poem “Jesus Zombie” by Bill Yarrow

https://billyarrow.wordpress.com/

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 had been writing a series of “bad uncle” poems, persona poems in the voice of a young nephew whose iconoclastic uncle was filling his head with offensive, often blasphemous, notions, vile interpretations, and noxious ideas. I got the idea of Jesus as the first zombie and the poem just snowballed from there. Its first and final form were remarkably similar. In all the versions, the unnamed nephew was the speaker. The other characters, his uncle and his father, were there from the start. The uncle’s name did change from Uncle Nat to Uncle Shaw to Uncle Ned in the final published version in Blasphemer, which came out on March 12, 2015 from Lit Fest Press. There were some other purely typographical changes related to how to format the dialogue in the poem. (http://www.festivalwriter.org)

Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail.

I wrote “Jesus, Zombie” after class one day in my office at Joliet Junior College. The office is off of an interior corridor so there are no windows in it, but it’s spacious and the floor is carpeted. I share my office, so there are two large desks with desktop computers on each, two rolling chairs, two file cabinets, and eight bookshelves mounted to the wall. The walls are bare except for two bulletin boards.

What month and year did you start writing this poem?

September 2014.

BELOW: Bill Yarrow in April of 2014)

How many drafts of this poem did

you write before going to the final?

The poem went through twelve drafts. Unfortunately, I cannot share a draft with pen markings on it as I always write and revise on the computer. I save all of my revisions on the computer. I never print out my work to revise it in pencil or pen.

ABOVE RIGHT: Bill Yarrow in April of 2014

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?

In the original version of the poem, there was a line describing the uncle with a “look of bedeviled surprise on his red face.” In subsequent versions, this became “my red-faced uncle turned toward me with a look of surprise on his face.” However, with that line, the line breaks in the poem didn’t work the way I wanted them to, so, in the final version of the poem, the line became “with a look of red surprise on his face.”

What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem?

I never think of my poems in that way.

Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why?

The part where the father runs up the stairs to protect his son from his brother’s blasphemy. The emotion surrounding protection is longstanding and profound. Poor Hamlet! No father to protect him from his wicked uncle!

Has this poem been published before? And if so where?

It appears in Blasphemer, my second full-length book of poems. In May 2017, it was reprinted in Michael Dickel’s (https://www.facebook.com/michael.dekel?lst=100001876654400%3A651224075%3A1531945180) online journal Meta/Phor(e) Play.

And in fictionaut http://fictionaut.com/stories/bill-yarrow/jesus-zombie

Anything you would like to add?

If sacrilege offends you, please do not read my poem.

Bill Yarrow, Professor of English at Joliet Junior College and an editor at Blue Fifth Review, is the author of TheVig of Love, Blasphemer, Pointed Sentences, and five chapbooks. He has been nominated eight times for a Pushcart Prize. Against Prompts, his fourth full-length collection, is forthcoming from Lit Fest Press in October 2018.

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/