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 wrote “Astral” in a flash, just a few hours. Poet/editor Sarah Cortez (BELOW) (https://www.poetacortez.com) contacted me because I hadn’t answered a call for submissions for an anthology, and she was going to press soon and wanted to include a poem by me. Everything I’d written on her subject, Mexico, was already taken by other publishers, so I decided to write a new poem for her.
I sat briefly considering ways to narrow the topic. Since I had to turn the poem out quickly, I decided to use ekphrasis. I knew if I looked at a painting, the images would inspire me. I don’t know how much you know about Leonora Carrington (http://www.leocarrington.com), the painter the poem is about, but she was strange and brilliant and feral. She grew up in a rigid environment in England and later immigrated to Mexico after having had traumatic experiences in other European countries during World War II.
So, I decided to intertwine thoughts about her life with images from her paintings. I didn’t know how it would go or how it would end, but I started looking at her work and reading about her and making notes. I knew her life and paintings well already because I love her and I love her work, and I have for a long time. But I wanted to refresh myself and meditate on the images and concepts. (Leonora Carrington’s The Conjurer in 1960- Fair Use)
After that, it happened rapidly—I started with details from her life; then I wove in visuals from the paintings. Periodically I went back to tighten description and language or rearrange syntax. I wrote and revised at the same time—every two lines or so I would stop and revise. As I moved along, it became clear to me that I wanted to approach her immigration to Mexico as a healing of the damage done to her from having grown up in such a sterile environment. She belonged in England as much as a hyena belongs in a zoo cage or a horse belongs in a stable. (Leonora Carrington’s Neighborly Advice in 1947. Fair Use)
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail.
I was on my bed with my laptop and cats. I have my grandmother’s old bedframe—a mahogany four-poster. It’s part of the bedroom set she had for as long back as I can remember, and it’s a spiritual and sentimental place for me to write. I was living with extended family at that time—my daughter and both of my parents—and my bedroom there had huge, floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out over a patio and yard with towering pines and a Japanese Maple. The house was shaped like a big U, and I could see an outdoor spiral staircase leading to an upstairs sunroom on the other side of the house, as well as my daughter’s swing set, a ranch-style fence with pink climbing roses, and a trampoline I often jumped on in my dresses when I got home from work.
BELOW LEFT: Melissa Studdard laying on her grandmother’s bed.
BELOW RIGHT: Melissa Studdard with her nieces on the trampoline.
What month and year did you start writing this poem?
I’m not sure of the month, but it was written in 2014 or 2015.
BELOW: Melissa Studdard in August 2014. Attributed to Darren Weatherly Trentacosta. Copyright permission granted by Melissa Studdard
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 revised as I wrote it, so you could say one draft or thirty-five, depending on how you look at things. I did it on my computer, so there’s nothing to show in the way of drafts, but I have notes I made before I wrote the poem. I was saving them to harvest what didn’t go into “Astral” for another poem. I’m going to drop them here exactly as they appear in the document, without correcting spelling or anything—you can see how quickly I was working. If something is in quotes, that means I read it somewhere and was trying to digest it.
Meta language interdependence overcoming limitations of space and time
Sailboat, “physical locomotion and changing worlds”
Tequila
Items found by her and Varo in markets and transformed into magical images of spiritual ritual
Beliefs that mirrored her own interest in occult
traveling to Mexico in a fish
“Combine themes of transit and transformation”
not a muse: n Mexico defined a relationship w ancient healing arts that was different from the surrealist belief in “childlike sourceresses to liberate male creativity”
she and varo–stones, shells, quartz crystals to transform kitchen into a laboratory and stew pot into “alchemical alembic”
Food creations: White hens, strong roots, heads of garlic, corsets with stays
fake caviar
mixing: cooking, alchemy, paints
ovoid vessels
painting wit egg tempura
painting of the lerma, the jug
“conscious of the power of space and the things that reside therein”
garlic important
kitchen as oppression, reclaim
grinding corn by hand
comal for peppers
combination of magical and mundane
believed in the 4th dimension, life of spirit as real
witches
write the landscape wither backwards hands
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?
A lot of the notes and ideas listed above never made it into the poem, but they inspired other ideas that did go in. I’m going to write another poem that uses the cooking and kitchen imagery. Carrington and another painter, Remedios Varo (BELOW,) sought to reclaim the kitchen from domestic servitude by creating their own alchemy there. That’s rich fodder for another poem.
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem?
Your spirit is yours. When safe and possible, resist conforming in ways that limit it. Find the place, the people, the art, and the activities that make you come alive. And if you can’t find them, live alone and dance barefoot in the grass at midnight, and talk to the frogs and all the little scuttling creatures beneath the moon. They will keep you company. And if you are not free to live alone and dance beneath the moon at midnight, develop a rich inner life. Your imagination, like Carrington’s, can provide you with beauty when your outer world is lacking. (BELOW: Leonora Carrington)
Which part of the poem was the most emotional for you to write and why?
“as she removed the sutures of logic / and unbound the lyrics of her being,” Like Carrington, I’ve been impaired by societal conventions and expectations. I’ve felt trapped, controlled, hampered. I’ve been made to feel crazy for being creative, and I’ve seen my light flicker off and almost out. Unlike Carrington, I’ve contributed to my own mental imprisonment, which is a double death. Deader than dead. I am trying and trying to unbind the lyrics of my being.
Has this poem been published before? And if so where?
Goodbye, Mexico: Poems of Remembrance
(Texas Review Press, 2015)
Edited by Sarah Cortez
Melissa Studdard is the author of the poetry collection I ate the Cosmos for Breakfast and the young adult novel Six Weeks to Yehidah. Her short writings have appeared in a wide variety of journals, magazines, blogs, and anthologies, such as The Guardian, The New York Times, Psychology Today, Harvard Review, New Ohio Review, Bettering American Poetry, and Poets & Writers.
In addition to writing, she serves as executive producer and host of VIDA Voices & Views for VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, president of the Women’s Caucus for the Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference, and an editor for American Microreviews and Interviews. Her awards include the Forward National Literature Award, the International Book Award, the Readers’ Favorite Award, and others. To learn more, visit www.melissastuddard.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
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/
031 September 24, 2018
“After We Drove”
by Mark Lee Webb
https://christalcooper.com/31-backstory-of-the-poem-after-we-drove-by-mark-lee-webb/
