BCC Shines A Light on: Everett Cruz
BCC Shines a Light On:
Everett Cruz
Name of the piece published by BCC:
When/where was it originally published:
Morning Fruit Magazine, July 2022
How did you feel when it was first published and how have your thoughts or feelings on the piece changed from then to now?
I wrote this last year. I had just started submitting my work, so I was navigating various literary journals and following them on Twitter. I came across a conversation between a few editors sharing what they don’t want to see in their submissions. They were adamant that they did not want to read another piece about bees, wind, or gardens. I understood why they would feel that way. They likely read many poems and stories that use this imagery, but it bummed me out. I’m a big gardener. I learned to love myself while loving my garden.
So, the next day I was outside in my garden, pruning the tomatoes and watching the bees bumbling about, when the first verse hit me. I punched some of the lines into my Notes app. I alternated between working in the garden and working on the draft. I didn’t invent images for this poem. I focused on creating the speaker and the poem’s form and just pulled images from around me.
I wanted to capture how it felt in the garden, knowing how much the very images the editors didn’t want to see in their submissions were the ones that gave me the most reflection. So, the speaker does that for me. The negation was intended to create tension/expectation with their repetition before diving deeper into the speaker’s mother, leading to the disruption of the form.
Is there a specific message you'd like readers to take away from reading this piece?
Find a quiet space in your life that surrounds your physical self with your emotional self and explore it.
Where can readers find more of your work? (Website/social media, etc)
I’ve been published by Resurrection Magazine, Five South, The Bitchin’ Kitsch, and others. Stanza Cannon published some of my spoken word work. I’m going to be published in the upcoming anthology, “Dear Human at the Edge of TIme.”
Twitter @EverettCruzIsOk
Instagram @EverettCruzisOK
