[wendy v]

Hi, Alicia, there's been a wonderful dialogue here, and I'm enjoying your time as Lariat. The first poem I read from you I'd discovered in a BAP, and I immediately found myself in search of more of your work.

I'm copying it in for AS fans, (I've just realized the initials of your book mirrors the initials of your name), who may not have had the pleasure, and would like to ask, if any small parts of the poem, are indeed, directly quoted. I'd also like to know if you've passed through a free verse phase, or if you still dabble in it, and if so, if you might copy in a poem or two for us who like to imagine ourselves somewhat ... ambidextrous. Ah, one more question -- after you've seen a particular poem in print, are you inclined to satisfaction, or are you continuously wishing you could take it back and revise it ?

``````

Asphodel
--A.E.Stallings

(after the words of Penny Turner, Nymphaion, Greece)

Our guide turned in her saddle, broke the spell:
"You ride now through a field of asphodel,
The flower that grows on the plains of hell.

Across just such a field the pale shade came
Of proud Achilles, who had preferred a name
And short life to a long life without fame,

And summoned by Odysseus he gave
This wisdom: 'Better by far to be a slave
Among the living, than great among the grave.'

I used to wonder, how did such a bloom
Become associated with the tomb?
Then one evening, walking through the gloom,

I noticed a strange fragrance. It was sweet,
Like honey -- but with hints of rotting meat.
An army of them bristled at my feet."

`````




[This message has been edited by wendy v (edited June 10, 2001).]

[A. E. Stallings]

Hello Wendy,

Thanks for the question.

Well, I'm not sure if any of the poem is "directly" quoted, inasmuch as I didn't have a tape recorder, or anything. But a lot of it did seem to spring from the remembered conversation very naturally (particularly the rimes, which sort of offered themselves). The poem is actually based on two different conversations, conflated into one. And although Penny did talk about some passage in the Odyssey at some point, it wasn't this particular one. The observations about the smell of asphodel, and its implications, though, are hers. The last line was originally not as visually accurate, and Marion Stocking from the BPJ picked up that something was amiss. As soon as she mentioned it, I knew she was right, and set about fixing it. So the current last line (with "bristled") is in part thanks to her challenging the original.

Scholars, of course, claim that asphodel is an "unidentified" flower from the ancient world. But I am convinced it is the same flower that we know by that name today. Graves has a charming essay about it ("The Common Asphodel"), by the way; although, typically, he goes off the deep end with his etymology... Asphodel does grow in meadows, and is common all over the Mediterranean. Actually, it is an indication of over-grazing and poor soil quality. It has a ghostly pale appearance in the fields at dusk.

Regarding free verse, I did struggle with it for a time after high school in college, and off and on for a few years afterwards. My free verse was sonically, anyway, based on an Eliot model: highly iambic, with lots of internal or occasional rimes. "Apollo Takes Charge of His Muses" (which is available in the archives at Poetry Daily) belongs to this period. To a certain extent, they were exploded formal poems. Eventually, I kind of gave up the "exploded" bit. I do continue, however, to work in loose accentual five beat blank verse line that feels very free-versey to me, or very free anyway. These poems are certainly beyond the pale for most "formalists". I guess they are in some sort of no man's land... I would like to go back to working in varied line lengths sometime. I could see myself going back to a more vers libre format if the subject demanded it. The idea that form and free verse are separate political parties is absurd. The real dichotomy is not between form and free but between good and bad (or rather, excellent and mediocre).

As for the last question... I do not publish a poem unless it has stabilized in its form and the urge to tinker has passed. Generally, I do not mess with it afterwards. After a certain time period, I would not fool with it even if something bothered me slightly--I respect it as the work of another person. Very occasionally, a line will still bother me after publication (or maybe start to bother me after publication). I guess in that case, if I were reprinting it in a book, say, I would make the adjustment. On the whole, I guess, I feel finished poems are in the past, and if something still niggles in the brain about the subject, it is the germ of a new poem.

I have been asked to change a poem sometimes in order for it to be published. Now, if I disagree with an editor over a proposed change, I simply withdraw the poem. It's my name that is going to be on the work; I'm the one who has to be happy with it. Once I did make an adjustment against my better judgment, and I couldn't look the poem in the face afterwards. So I am very stubborn now (at least, if I disagree--sometimes the editor is right). There is little money in poetry, so there is no reason to "sell out."

Thanks for the interesting questions!

Alicia