#434 Backstory of the Poem “I am a Poem” by Kevin Ridgeway.
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 recalled poems we had to write in junior high (BELOW) called “I Am Poems,” which were often simple and not to mention lifeless affairs, usually written from the point of view of a historical figure and recited on stage at evening school pageants. I decided to write a tongue in cheek “I Am Poem” from the point of view of a poem itself. In doing so I wanted to give the poem its own personality and insecurities. I wanted to write a poem poets could appreciate as well as readers on the subjectivity of poetry, and how one person might appreciate something another might not. It was one of those poems that didn’t take long to write. I didn’t have to put much effort into drafting it. I went in and trimmed words that were excessive to give it a simple, concise and plain spoken flow. I probably wrote five or six drafts before I was happy with it.
Where were you when you started to actually write the poem? And please describe the place in great detail.
It was a few years ago (BELOW LEFT: in November of 2022) and I was on the back patio of my house, surrounded by old junk–bottles and cans, broken electronics that all belong to my landlord, as well as a displaced carousel horse that always stared out at me, almost pleading with me to rescue it. I would often go out there early in the mornings to write fragments and free writes of new ideas, which this began from. I remember the sky was still dark and my notebook was illuminated by the ember of my lit cigarette.
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?
I had a bit in there about the poem’s sex appeal but thought that opened up another can of worms that I chose to reserve for another poem.
Click on the link to view Kevin Ridgeway’s blog page
What do you want readers of this poem to take from this poem?
The basic understanding that poetry is subjective and maybe a laugh or two.
And perhaps that judgement day comes for us all, not just the poems.
Has this poem been published? And if so where?
Yes, it was recently published by fellow poet Brian Harman in Beach Chair #5 (December 2024), a great newer online poetry journal published via his equally phenomenal Beach Chair Press. They’re based in Southern California. You can check them out here:
Which part of the poem was the most emotional of you to write and why?
I was detached from it until what became the last four lines–as a person I could relate to the poem’s voice on that level. The frail humanity behind the idea of being judged and or/forgotten. No matter how thick my skin gets, sometimes that feeling of being discarded comes around still and it can sting. The good news for me is that I love the act of creation so much that I just move on to my next poem, a process that always forces said sting to subside.
