#40 Backstory of the Poem” “My Children Question Me About Poetry” and “Deathbed Dreams” from the poetry collection COUNTING THE SUMS by Rita Quillen published by Sow’s Ear Press in 1995.
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 the poem “My Children Question Me About Poetry” sometime around 1985 or ’86 in response to a prompt from one of my major influences, east Tennessee poet Jeff Daniel Marion (LEFT: with Rita) He was teaching the poetry class at the Appalachian Writer’s Workshop held annually at the Hindman Settlement School in eastern Kentucky.
The instructions for the assignment were to write a series of logical questions about something on the left side of the page, and then answer each question to the right. The answers to the question were to be such that the right side of the page could be read as a poem. Here is that poem:
About that same time in my life, my grandmother on my mother’s side passed away. A year or two after her death, I was watching a film version of Horton Foote’s amazing play, TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL about a grandmother wanting to make one last trip home to her Texas hometown before she passed away. For some mysterious reason, the woman in the film made me think of my grandmother, and then of the lines of this poem “the stillness beyond memory/at dawn on the last morning.”
On the surface it makes no sense, in that my grandmother had no compelling desire, as far as I knew, to return to the community of her childhood or make any other such pilgrimage. But she did have a very challenging life, in many ways, and at the end of her life struggled with dementia and amputation among other things. I felt a sadness at her passing that was not just the expected type of grief from loss we all feel at such a time, but also a grief that her life couldn’t have been easier, happier, less stressful.
Another relevant event that occurred about the same time was a discovery of the poetic form called apantoum; its beautiful, haunting, liturgical quality of repetition and musicality really appealed to me. All of these events converged into a poem called “Deathbed Dreams” which was a pantoum about my grandmother that incorporated several images from the earlier poem of questions and answers.
(RIGHT: Rita, left standing with her grandmother Carrie Freeman holding Rita’s son.)
This experience taught me that I was very drawn to this type of call and response and echoing quality. My years in church growing up merged with my writing to find a commonality and a perspective that I had not previously thought about. I did something new with my writing and discovered a direction I wanted to explore more. A big part of the challenge and the fun of writing poetry is the journey itself from the conception to the execution of the idea of the poem, watching the sometimes strange and unexpected path the work travels as it makes its way on to the page.
Where were you when you started to actually write the poems? And please describe the place in great detail.
I wrote the initial draft of the poem – the list of questions and answers – at the Hindman Settlement School (https://www.hindmansettlement.org/) in Hindman KY where the annual Appalachian Writer’s Workshop is held every August. Specifically, sitting on the steps outside the old library building on campus where most of the classes were held. It was an assignment due the next day for the poetry workshop led by noted Appalachian poet Jeff Daniel Marion.
What month and year did you start writing these poems?
I am not sure of the year, but it should have been between 1985-87.
(RIGHT: Rita Quillen in 1985)
How many drafts of these poems did you write before going to the final? (And can you share a photograph of your rough drafts with pen markings on it?)
SORRY – just can’t remember – and can not find the original. Ugh. I have most of them saved away, but couldn’t find this one.
What do you want readers of these poems to take from this poems?
I think, aside from the obvious tribute to my grandmother, to the acknowledgement of her life passing, as a poet I hope people will note the lyrical language, the figurative elements of it, and to appreciate how the repetition of the pantoum form holds the sound and meaning so beautifully together. I think modern poetry with its emphasis on free and blank verse sometimes misses out on the advantages and strengths that form can bring to a work.
Which part of the poems was the most emotional of you to write and why?
All of it, really, thinking about my grandmother in her final moments, imagining her, though I was not there, seeing all of us in her final moments, in her mind’s eye, and all those who had gone before.
Have these poems been published before? And if so where?
The poem was published in THE MOSSY CREED READER in about 1992, I believe.
Contact Information:
www.ritasimsquillen.com is my website. People can follow me on Twitter @hillbillypoet and on Facebook.
Rita Quillen’s new full-length poetry collection, THE MAD FARMER’S WIFE, was published in 2016 byTexas Review Press, a Texas A & M affiliation and was a finalist for the prestigious Weatherford Award in Appalachian Literature from Berea College. Her novel HIDING EZRA, released by Little Creek Books, was a finalist for the 2005 DANA Awards, and a chapter of the novel is included in TALKING APPALACHIAN , a scholarly study of Appalachian dialect published by the University of Kentucky Press in 2014. One of six semi- finalists for the 2012-14 Poet Laureate of Virginia, she received a Pushcart nomination in 2012 and 2015, and a Best of the Net nomination in 2012.
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
#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
#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
#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
#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
#19th Backstory of the Poem
“Stiletto Killer . . . A Surmise” from the poetry collection ENTER HERE
By Alexis Rhone Fancher
#20 Backstory of the Poem
“At Last I Can Start Suffering”
By Charles Rammelkamp
#21 Backstory of the Poem
“Wind Chimes”
by Marla Shaw O’Neil
#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
#025 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
#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
#030 Backstory of the Poem
“The Risking Point”
by Larry Jaffe
#031 Backstory of the Poem
031 September 24, 2018
Mark Lee Webb’s “After We Drove”
https://christalcooper.com/31-backstory-of-the-poem-after-we-drove-by-mark-lee-webb/
#032 Backstory of the Poem
“Astral”
by Melissa Studdard
https://christalcooper.com/32-backstory-of-the-poem-astral-by-melissa-studdard/
#033 Backstory of the Poem
“I Have A Bass Guitar Called Vanessa”
#034 Backstory of the Poem
David Sullivan’s “Paper Mache Peaches of Heaven”
https://christalcooper.com/34-backstory-of-the-poem-paper-mache-peaches-of-heaven-by-david-sullivan/
#035 Backstory of the Poem
“Sobriety”
by Timothy Gager
#036 Backstory of the Poem
“The Second Breakfast”
by Gary Glauber
https://christalcooper.com/36-backstory-of-the-poem-the-second-breakfast-by-gary-glauber/
#037 Backstory of the Poem
“Melania’s Deaf Tone Jacket”
By Heather McKeon
https://christalcooper.com/37-backstory-of-the-poem-melanias-tone-deaf-by-heather-forbes-mckeon/
#038 Backstory of the Poem
“Women of the Fields”
by Andrena Azwinski
#039 Backstory of the Poem
“Poe”
by Gordon Hilgers
https://christalcooper.com/39-backstory-of-the-poem-poe-by-gordon-hilgers/