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?
The genesis of this poem was a bad vacation, if there is any such thing as a vacation being “bad”. It’s just that my wife and I were having teeny-tiny little tiffs here and there as we traveled around California during the summer of 2015. We started in LA and were working our way up the coast. I’m from the LA area I grew up in Malibu Canyon, but it’s all changed so much. It’s concrete from the beach all the way to the San Gabriel Mountains now. It can wear you out.
Anyway, we’ve been fighting LA traffic for a week and arguing a bit every day, and now we’re headed up to Northern California, stopping for a few nights in Morro Bay and, hopefully we’ll be able to relax and enjoy ourselves.
We get to Morro Bay, one of the most iconic spots in all of California, and right next to the ocean and bay there’s this gigantic abandoned power plant with smokestacks hundreds of feet high. My wife and I have been bickering a bit all week and we’re all set to get away from the mess that is LA and relax on the Central Coast and here’s the view of Morro Bay spoiled by this gigantic abandoned power plant. The town itself turns out to be a tourist trap. “The Rock”, which is a 300-foot high prominence in the water that everyone goes there to see, is fenced off. It’s just a crummy place. It ain’t like the postcards.
I get this idea about how California itself is a bit of a mirage and not really like the postcards, and along withthe differences between my wife and I that led to a bit of bickering (she’s a risk taker/ I worry about everything: she wants to drive up to Hearst Castle via Highway 1/ I’m afraid of heights) I came up with the idea for this poem. I actually continued to write other poems on this idea, and it became the basis for my MFA thesis (Queens University of Charlotte 2018). I wrote most of the lines in this poem rather quickly, and it seemed in its best form using couplets, so I stayed with that form and never changed it.
But I could not come up with an ending. How to get Morro Bay into the ending of the poem and make it a surprising ending. No clichés allowed. Well, it just so happened that a few weeks later we’re watching a production of Romeo and Juliet on DVD (we decided to dive into Shakespeare that fall and watch one play a week) and there is this line in Act II Scene I where Romeo’s friends are making fun of him, and Mercutio says, “Till she had laid it and conjured it down.” I thought that line remarkable, so I sorta stole it and morphed it into “lay low, conjure me down” But I still needed some way to get to that end; I now had what I thought was a great ending, but I needed a bridge to get there.
I went back to my journal and found some notes I took in LA while I was walking on the Huntington Beach Pier about a fisherman jigging for crabs with the head of a mackerel and how he pulled up a large crab clinging to the mackerel’s eye, and that’s how I got the lines, “You pick a mackerel’s eye/from the claw of a crab and make-believe/it’s a pearl.” Now I had my bridge from beginning and middle of poem to the end, and I had an ending thanks to Shakespeare. I included a picture of that page of the journal so you can see what I wrote that day in July on the pier.
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail.
I was back home in my basement office. My office is a 10’x10’ finished room in our basement. My writing desk is large and old, with plenty of scars. It takes up most of the space in my office. I have a nice stereo down there with a vintage turntable that spins vinyl jazz albums. There is a small window in the corner of my office just over my desk—way up high almost to the ceiling—that drizzles the room with light in the mornings. I also have several bookcases packed with books—virtually all are books of poetry. A lot of chapbooks. I love chapbooks: I delight in the intimacy of reading a small portfolio of a poet’s work.
What month and year did you start writing this poem?
Around August of 2015, about a month after we returned from our vacation in California.
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?)
Not many. I did workshop this poem with a wonderful poetry group in Columbus, Ohio that I belong to: The Pudding House Innovative Writer’s Program.( https://www.facebook.com/Pudding-Magazine-206203566056760/)
I submitted it to Ninth Letter (https://www.facebook.com/ninthletter/?tn-str=k*F) in November of 2015, so I didn’t spend a lot of time with it. It was one of those poems that worked well from the beginning and didn’t require many revisions.
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem?
Don’t sweat the small stuff. Don’t worry about things out of your control. Don’t let the little petty things in life get in the way of relationships with your loved one. Believe in magic.
Which part of the poem was the most emotional for you to write, and why?
My wife is a dreamer. I worry about everything. I’m afraid of heights. She did all the driving across SF Bay bridges and on the coast around Mendocino. It was hard to catalog differences between the two characters in the poem because I was really cataloging the differences between my wife and I. That was tough to do.
Has this poem been published before? And if so where?
Yes. Ninth Letter published it in 2016, and Aeolian Harp (https://www.facebook.com/groups/639918179442754/) reprinted it (along with several more of my poems) in 2018.
Anything you would like to add?
Too many people are afraid to write poetry: “It’s too complicated. It’s too deep. I can’t understand it. I can’t write it”. I encourage them to write about what happened today, or last week. Don’t write about the universe. Write about the date you had last night. Write about that chair in your kitchen that always wobbles. Don’t worry about the form, or artificial rules. Write anything—just don’t be afraid to write. When I lead children in writing poetry I give them no rules other than write about what’s in their rooms or closets or behind their back fences. They just blossom and can’t stop writing poems. Free from rules and constraints, they feel free to, well, just write. And they craft the most marvelous poems. That what this poem has in it: a catalogue of what I saw and experienced in California. A mackerel’s eye. Little ponds on little ranches baking dry in the summer heat. Santa Ana winds. Brush fires. Shake roofs. Ojai, and Morro Bay.
She borrowed a line from Henry van Dyke: “Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.” I think that says it all.
I was born in Louisville, KY, but we moved to California in the late 60’s. Growing up as a teenager around SoCal beaches, I know where a skeg is on a surfboard, and how to get from Malibu to Westwood via Mulholland. I am happily married to the wonderfully talented musician Molly McCormack, and we each have two grown sons from previous marriages. I received my MFA from Queens University of Charlotte. I’ve had two chapbooks published: WHATEVERITS (Finishing Line Press, 2014) and The Weight of Paper (ELJ Publications, 2014). My poems have appeared in many literary journals, including Ninth Letter, The Louisville Review, Aeolian Harp, Soundings Review, Glassworks, Chiron Review, The Baltimore Review, RipRap, and Star 82 Review
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
#022 Backstory of the Poem
“Studying Ariel”
by Julia Gordon-Bramer
https://christalcooper.com/22-backstory-of-the-poem-studying-ariel-by-julia-gordon-bramer/
#023 Backstory of Poem
“Jesus Zombie”
by Bill Yarrow
https://christalcooper.com/23-backstory-of-the-poem-jesus-zombie-by-bill-yarrow/
#24 Backstory of the Poem
“Brag 2016:
by Telaina Eriksen
https://christalcooper.com/24-backstory-of-the-poem-brag-2016-by-telaina-eriksen/?fbclid=IwY2xjawIzGJdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHZeayRlw6zYAOyP5qo6As9vRo5uNe7KOuLd5Jx3Up6Vu1iQKKnrFGJNL0Q_aem_7xQOqqtavclwCkvKupxujA
#025 Backstory of the Poem
“It is only Yourself that Bends – so Wake up!”
by Seth Berg
https://christalcooper.com/25-backstory-of-the-poem-it-is-only-yourself-that-bends-so-wake-up-by-seth-berg/
#26 Backstory of the Poem
“Devil In the Details”
by David Herrle
https://christalcooper.com/26-backstory-of-the-poem-devil-in-the-details-by-david-herrle/
#27 Backstory of the Poem
“Carmen Polo, Lady Necklaces, 2017”
by Gloria Mindock
https://christalcooper.com/27-backstory-of-the-poem-carmen-polo-lady-necklaces-2017-by-gloria-mindock/
#28 Backstory of the Poem
“Two Deaths”
by Connie Post
https://christalcooper.com/28-backstory-of-the-poem-two-deaths-by-connie-post/
#029 Backstory of the Poem
“Faces in a Crowd”
by Mary Harwell Sayler
https://christalcooper.com/29-backstory-of-the-poem-faces-in-a-crowd-from-the-poetry-collection-faces-in-a-crowd-by-mary-harwell-sayler/
#030 Backstory of the Poem
“The Risking Point”
by Larry Jaffe
https://christalcooper.com/30-backstory-of-the-poem-the-risking-point-from-the-poetry-collection-dont-take-candy-from-strangers-by-larry-jaffe/
