Poetry Friday, Week 14: Poet Interview, Part II, Randi Sonenshine

n   Thanks to ​Irene at Live Your Poem  for hosting the first Friday of National Poetry Month.

The theme of my poetry month is 'doubleheaders". Double interview Fridays  and double videos on my Saturday Matinees featuring my TWU students.

World Aquatic Animal Day was April 3 so the first two books feature sea animals.
Part II, is an  interview with Randi Sonenshine and her gorgeous book ​The Den That  Octopus Built. The book birthday is set for May 21, 2024.

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JRM: From a lodge built by a beaver to a den built by an octopus, how did you decide on the octopus to be the next book?
RS: My agent, Kendra Marcus of BookStop Literary, called me one night and told me I had to watch My Octopus Teacher because it was going to be my next book. She was right, of course! I was spellbound! Octopuses are such fascinating creatures, and though we have learned a lot about them, there is still so much we don’t know. They have an uncanny intelligence and an almost universal appeal. Their dens, though not elaborate structures like the wren’s nest or beaver’s lodge, are unique and central to the life cycle of an octopus.

JRM: Are you creating a series? What will be next?
RS: I think there’s potential for additional books in the animal habitats series, but there are none in the works at the moment. Currently, I’m working on another project, also a lyrical exploration of one aspect of the animal world, but wholly different from this series. 

JRM: I am sure you researched octopi in depth. What information did you have to leave out? What was the most surprising tidbit of information from the research? 
RS: I try to integrate as much of my research as I can within the main text, but given that the text is poetic and spare, that's a challenge, which is why I include back matter. With this book, though, there was so much I wanted to include, I couldn’t fit it all in the back matter. I would love to have included more about their hunting techniques, which I find fascinating. I mention the pounce attack in one of the verses, but they sometimes even trick their prey by reaching all the way around with one arm to tap it. When the backs up, thinking the danger is in front of it, it backs right into the octopus, where it is quickly trapped in the webbing between the cephalopod’s arms. To add insult to injury, the octopus then injects it with a paralyzing neurotoxin from its beak. Of all the fascinating things I learned, though, the most surprising had to do with words. Like you, I always thought the plural of octopus was octopi, but it’s octopuses or octopus. 
JRM: Wow 
RS:It has Greek roots rather than Latin. Also, its limbs are not called tentacles. They are arms. Squids have tentacles, which are long and stringy with suckers only on their clubbed ends, while octopus arms are shorter, muscular, and have rows of suckers all along their length. 

JRM: I love the pattern from the classic This is the House that Jack Built. What was your process for getting the rhyming and the cadence to flow and to include the information about the octopus?
RS: As this is the third companion book, the cadence is very natural to me. In fact, while I’m in the writing phase, I often think in that rhythmic pattern, even when I’m not actually writing! While I’m researching, I also jot down words, phrases, and sometimes lines that are evoked by what I’m learning. Those words and the meter are constantly percolating in my brain, and as phrases or lines come to me (usually in the car, the shower, or right before I fall asleep!) I jot them down in the notes app on my phone. I’m a stickler for meter and rhyme, so I will obsess over every syllable until these are  perfect. Sometimes that means changing a word or phrase or inverting the two clauses that make up the couplet. Two absolute essentials during this phase of the work are RhymeZone and thesaurus.com. I also read the verses out loud over and over and have others read them aloud. If anyone stumbles over a line or forces the meter, I know it needs work. 

JRM: Research or create the rhymes? What is your favorite? 
RS: I love the research, but it can take me down a long and winding rabbit hole! Once I start to write, though, it’s such an exciting challenge. It’s like a puzzle; I need to find just the right “piece” to fit in that poetic space.I also love revising for other sound and meaning elements to make the text as musical and lyrical as I can. With each revision pass, I layer and refine elements like alliteration, assonance, figurative language, and sensory images to create something that’s rich in both sound and meaning. 

JRM: Was there a verse you wanted but had to cut?
RS: I wanted to include a verse that showed her using a shell or some kind of vessel as a temporary shelter: 
This is the shell she squeezes inside/ a quick, makeshift shelter to rest in and hide/ while far from the den that Octopus built. 

Instead, I opted for the verse in which she uses shells around her as armor: 
These are the shells she wears like a sheath/ keeping her safe from Tiger Shark’s teeth/ when she’s far from the den that Octopus built.

JRM: How can readers support our aquatic environments?
RS:: That’s a great question! First, it’s important for readers to understand that the ocean supports humans, just as it does aquatic life. In fact, about ten percent of people in the world depend on the ocean for their livelihood, and there is a limited supply of that water. The easiest and most important thing we can do is use less water. Taking shorter showers, turning off the water when we brush our teeth, and making sure we don’t have leaks are all great ways to conserve water. Also important is reducing the amount of contamination in our oceans, especially plastics. Recycling, using reusable water bottles, and using less disposable plastics like take-out cutlery, straws, and containers will go a long way towards reducing this threat to our aquatic life. 

JRM: Thank you for your wonderful interview.  I was unaware of the plural of octopus and that they are limbs.

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JRM: Would you have an early draft of a poem and then the final draft so readers can take a peek at the process? 
RS: Well, my process is (literally) all over the place! First, I jot down verses and partial verses in my notebook and/or on my brainstorming document on my computer, as well as in the notes on my phone, so I have snippets and scraps in multiple places before I stitch them together into a cohesive draft. Before I draft, I put the rough verses (usually multiple options) on color-coded notecards to help group them and determine the  sequence, all the while playing with the language and sentence structure, so by the time I draft the manuscript, I have worked through a lot of revisions, and the changes after that are not as extreme. To show that evolution, I’ve added some of those early octopus “inklings’ to my first draft to share with you and your readers.

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Please stop by for the Double Feature Saturday Matinee featuring my TWU Students. And I host next Friday.