Tag Archives: Poet Laureate

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Thrall by Natasha Trethewey

thrallNatasha Trethewey’s Thrall  is swimming in ekphrastic poetry, mostly inspired by paintings depicting mixed races dating from the 1600’s into the 1800’s. She skillfully weaves the politics and cultural import of racial mixing in historical context with the contemporary implications for inter-racial relationships and the perceptions of children born of such relationships; this is most poignant when she delves into her personal life experiences as the daughter of a black woman and a white man, exploring her relationship with her parents—particularly her father.

As with Domestic Work, I found her poetry much more compelling when she is writing about her personal experiences, though the entire collection is expressed in tight, controlled language that is beautifully rendered.

My favorite poems from this collection (bold = extra favorite):

Some of my favorite lines:

  • “drizzle needling the surface” from Elegy
  • “her body advancing toward them / like spilled ink spreading on the page” from De Espanol y Negra; Mulata
  • “the treachery of nostalgia” from Mythology, 3. Siren
  • “my heart battering my rib cage– / a trapped, wild bird.” from Bird in the House
  • “…forgive me / that I searched for meaning in everything / you did, that I watched you bury the bird / in the backyard—your back to me; I saw you / flatten the mound, erasing it into the dirt.” from Bird in the House
  • “when I saw him outlined—a scrim of light— / he was already waning, turning to go” from Rotation
  • “he named—like a field guide to Virginia— // each flower and tree and bird as if to prove / a man’s pursuit of knowledge is greater / than his shortcomings, the limits of his vision.” from Enlightenment
  • “I see how the past holds us captive, / its beautiful ruin etched on the mind’s eye” from Enlightenment
  • “What is said and not / white space framing the story / the way the past    unwritten / eludes us” from Illumination
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Domestic Work by Natasha Trethewey

trethewey2gbSo…I have an appointment with Poet Laureate, Natasha Trethewey. As part of her Laureate-ship, she has been hosting open office hours, where anyone can schedule an appointment to come chat about poetry with her at the Library of Congress. Granted, this will not be a one-on-one conversation, she’s seeing people in small groups, still, I’m excited to have the opportunity to meet he in person.

And since my appointment is fast approaching, I thought I should probably, you know, read some of her work. My first volume of hers is Domestic Work, published in 2000 by Graywolf Press, and recipient of the 1999 Cave Canem Poetry Prize.

As with most poetry books, this one is divided into section. The first section were a series of poems written from photographs. The first two sections were largely poems written about people and places far removed from me, so while technically well executed, the poems didn’t speak to me all that much. In the third and fourth sections, however, Trethewey gets more personal and delves into her own history and story more deeply and I found these poems to be much more satisfying.

One quality that I came to appreciate as I read this collection, was her finesse with endings. Many of the lines I loved best were her end lines. They left me both thinking and satisfied at the same time.

Here are a few of my favorite lines:

  • “my parents breath evening air / heady and sweet as kentucky bourbon” from “Early Evening, Frankfurt, Kentucky”
  • “her face made strangely beautiful / as only suffering can do” from “Hot Combs”
  • “I watch him bother / the space for knees, shins, scratching air / as–years later–I’d itch for what’s not there.” from “Family Portrait”
  • “holding his body up to pain” from “Amateur Fighter”
  • “minnows dart at my feet / glinting like switchblades” from “History Lesson“
  • “we take what we need of light” and “preserve hand picked days of memory, / our mind’s dark pantry.” from “Gathering”

And favorite poems:

  • Three photographs
  • Domestic Work, 1937
  • Signs, Oakvale, Mississippi, 1947
  • Early Evening, Frankfurt, Kentucky
  • Hot Combs
  • Family Portrait
  • Mythmaker
  • Flounder
  • Microscope
  • Accounting
  • Gathering
  • Collection Day
  • Carpenter Bee
  • Limen