Here are a few poems that I absolutely loved, but that didn’t quite fit with the story in its current form.
Etan, as an artist, is a huge part of the story. I wrote a lot of poems about his artwork. While I like the poem so much, it didn’t fit or move the story as it needed to.
It’s a known fact
that crayons are
two parts wax
one thousand parts magic
so it makes perfect sense
on a thirsty July morning
to wet the tip of your finger
and smear the wax
until it becomes
what you need it to be,
to quickly draw a container
to hold the juice before
it runs out over the page
And of course, BASEBALL! So much of the book is wrapped up in baseball and friendship. The friendship between Etan and Jordan was very important early on. They grew up playing baseball together, and in early drafts of the book, Jordan moved away. But the character of Jordan changed A LOT. This is often the hardest part of creating stories… when we love characters and their relationships, but then we have to transform them into something else. This short poem didn’t make it in, but it helps deepen the empathy for Etan and his life as an outcast as we learn about how his friend moved away. I think we can all relate to the way this feels.
New School
The day after Jordan
broke the record
for stolen bases,
we went to his house
to help him pack.
Do you think they’ll have baseball
at your new school? I ask.
No, they have swimming.
I’m supposed to start that.
It’s impossible to imagine Jordan
NOT playing baseball.
Why do you have to move there at all?
I don’t know, it sucks.
I guess it’s closer
to where my father's Law firm is.
We finish our cokes.
You can visit me, Etan, in the city?
Yeah. I fake smiled.
Then we kept packing
somehow knowing
how hard it would be.
Eczema
Writing about Malia was complicated. Eczema is very complicated. For people who haven’t experienced it--it can be difficult to understand. Most people have rashes that itch, but as my wife explains it, she has “itches that rash.” Ella has suffered from extreme eczema off and on her whole life. Her memoir, Itchy Brown Girl Seeks Employment (2009) is about a life lived with this skin disease. It’s something we know well. It’s something we don’t learn about often enough in books.
In The Magical Imperfect, Malia suffers a similar flare-up of eczema. It’s so bad that she is isolated from school because of the way other kids treat her--calling her “the creature.” But it’s really about her own discomfort. I wrote numerous poems about Malia dealing with her eczema. I wanted to make sure that in some way, her actions and reactions would be true and help be a window and a mirror for readers. But of course, not every word makes it into the book! Much of this poem is in there, but there are more severe versions like this one…
and I notice something
I hadn’t seen before.
She’s scratching
the arm inside her blanket
and blood is coming through.
I never realized it
because it’s been hidden
but I can see the way
her arm moves,
she scratches,
has been scratching
almost the whole time.
This last poem is part of a HUGE group of what I named “The Golem” poems. (maybe a picture book one day)! One of the core themes of the book is that, “you are not alone.” I wrote chapters about the golem being born and immediately running away and hiding scared and feeling alone until Etan and Malia start to try to connect with this being they brought to life from ancient clay.. Obviously, this didn’t fit within the limits of THIS book, but here is a taste of that alternate world where maybe it might have.
New friend
Somewhere in the forest
beneath the redwoods
the golem waits
for his creators.
He folds clovers
in his muddy hands
twisting yellow flowers
into tiny bouquets
and leaving them
on the sitting stones
When Etan and Malia
come to sing and draw
they find the stones
covered in clover stems
and dried mud.
Footprints sink
deep into the muck
near the pool.
Etan leaves drawings
of not two, but three friends
sitting together on the stones.
Malia sings in the warm afternoon
and they wait
for the moment
when the shy and swirling light
of bright and watery eyes
will come up from the mud
and whisper, friend.
Thank you, Chris. This is so moving, fascinating, and powerful. I love the added layers that these poems give us in reading The Magical Imperfect. I hope we see that Golem picture book one day, too. Thanks so much for sharing these poems and this glimpse with us.
Now, head on over to Unexpected Intersections where Elisabeth is hosting Poetry Friday.
