Name of the piece published by BCC:
When/where was it originally published:
The poem was originally published by Sudden Denouement Literary Collective as part of their “March
Madness” writing event in 2017.
What is the background of the piece? What led you to write it? What’s your process?
The background of the piece is the infidelity of my marital partner and having a hard time coping with
the guilt and responsibility; reprieve came to me in a dream which is the poem’s closing lines – I wanted
to solidify that hope in my life and honoured it by writing it into a poem.
How did you feel when it was first published and how have your thoughts or feelings on the piece
changed from then to now?
The first publishing of the poem by someone else rather than me gave me the much needed validation
at the time that I can poetically speak, my pain had a tangible space where it was allowed to exist. I look
at my word choice now and think if I was to rewrite the poem now, I would have worded it differently –
because that pain of that moment is now gone. The poem does still feel like “me”, it has my style, my
cadence and my sorrow and rage.
Is there a specific message you'd like readers to take away from reading this piece?
If a bad person in your life wants to leave – let them; it is ok to hurt, and mourn your relationships –
always, dramatic or quietly, and I hope that you take the poem’s closing lines to heart; love is
everywhere and it will find you again.
Where can readers find more of your work? (Website/social media, etc)
Most of my work is on my blog : olorielmoonshadow.wordpress.com, and on Twitter : @selena_oloriel