Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Tupelo 1/30: Angel of Assassination

Dear reader,

A few weeks ago, I spent the morning at Ventnor Coffee and reread my recently accepted manuscript The Things a Body Might Become (forthcoming 2017, ELJ Editions).

Working on a second manuscript has helped me think more critically about how the first one works, and though I still believe that the first book is about how women, in particular, negotiate a dangerous world, I discovered that the collection was also exploring the nature of belief–religious/spiritual, political, personal.

Like I have outlined for my current manuscript-in-progress, I decided to list other poem themes that might be good additions to this first book. Some of the themes are in conversation with pre-existing poems, some are new angles.

Fast forward to this past week, where I've been a resident at the Sundress Academy for the Arts (SAFTA) at Firefly Farms. Here, I've had time to research many of these topics, including historical/political female assassins.

Though I've found myself interested in several of their lives, I was particularly drawn to Charlotte Corday. She was well read/educated and believed that Marat was responsible for the most violent threads of the Reign of Terror. I was also interested in the story that a man on the guillotine platform, possibly a carpenter, slapped her freshly decapitated face. That was the seed of the poem.

After writing some notes on an index card, I slept on it, and in the morning I recorded an audio draft on my iPhone during a walk. The notes from the audio draft led to "Angel of Assassination," excerpted here:


"...Hands bound, detached
below; if her tongue still flapped, she’d
spit Plutarch’s credo. The six-inch blade

of a woman's spite." 

This is the first day. And I will disclose that I'm nervous about putting something just-formed into the world. Already, as I sit down to work on my next draft-in-progress, the old ghosts of insecurity are rattling my cage. Shush, I say, shush. 

Cheer me on, friends. I know I can do it, but it helps to hear someone else's voice too. And consider any of the poem perks in the last post to help shape the course of my work this month. 

Love to you all.

Yours in poetry,

Emari

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