First and last poem drafts (When I Wake Up I'm Not Myself)
This is a before and after of the poem “When I Wake Up I’m Not Myself.” An origin story. Genesis of a Marie Antoinette metaphor. And it’s about finding the meaning of a poem, not just the imagery of it.
About a year ago, I started compiling my first full-length manuscript, Good Girl and Other Yearnings (which, by the time it’s published, will likely be my 2nd full-length manuscript). The very first draft of this collection needed to be metaphorically beheaded—it was 70% terrible, self-serving, and without direction. In that mess lived a poem fully based on a dream I had, titled, “Last Night the Apocalypse was an Amusement Park and I was Taking Tickets”…