In The Field: Conversations With Our Contributors—Cheryl Clark Vermeulen

What inspired your poem, “Patriarch“? 

Thank you for your astute questions about my poem! It is lovely to have great listeners.

My inspiration for “Patriarch” was very much influenced by work meetings, whether corporate, academic, or otherwise organizational, in which larger societal forces impinge on the conversations in those meetings, and in particular—cue up sexism and patriarchy here—how men can be found talking over women or dismissing a woman’s idea then later regurgitating it as their own.

I love the line, “we are juggling/the slights.” It makes me think of boardroom meetings and corporate Zoom calls, where bosses talk over each other. Can you talk more about that line and how it came to be in this piece?

Now in my early 50s, I have plenty of anecdotal experiences of such “slights,” but more recently I have experienced meetings in which women have been aware of these dynamics and sought to interrupt them by listening and amplifying another woman’s idea. And please do recognize my simplification because women, having internalized sexism, can also diminish other women in the room.

The “diminishing” reference takes on an interesting angle when compared to the perpetrator, which is such a small mouse. Can you talk about the juxtaposition of choosing a mouse to represent such an overwhelming presence?

While I started writing about a single meeting in this poem, multiple experiences converged and I sought to distill my thoughts and feelings into a single, small poem. I also considered, then, that if someone in the poem, consciously aware or not, has an outsize presence, then in resistance to these forces, seeking a better “future,” the speaker has the power to shrink that presence and thus, in my imagining, become a mouse. Once poetic compression became so important, to call the poem “Patriarch” felt like a dare—I mean, can we actually talk about patriarchy and connect it to the individuals we interact with on a daily basis?

I am forever grateful that poetry gives me the space to reflect, question, and dream. Again, thank you for asking!

What are some of your favorite books? Which authors have inspired your work?

Alice Notley’s poems continue to inspire me, particularly her books Mysteries of Small Houses and The Descent of Alette.

Cheryl Clark Vermeulen is poet, editor, translator, educator, and author of the poetry books They Can Take It Out (The Word Works, 2022), This Paper Lantern (Dancing Girl Press), and Dead-Eye Spring (Cy Gist Press). She received an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is poetry editor at Pangyrus and visiting associate professor in humanities at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where she founded the department’s first creative writing minor. Originally from Illinois, she lives in Boston, with her husband and twin boys. Find her virtually on Twitter @apoeminthere, Instagra @cherwords, and Linktree at https://linktr.ee/cherylclarkvermeulen.