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| Photo courtesy Gerhard Gellinger |
Introduction by Ted Kooser: Beginning writers often
tell me their real lives aren't interesting enough to write about, but the mere
act of shaping a poem lifts its subject matter above the ordinary. Here’s
Natasha Trethewey, who served two terms as U. S. Poet Laureate, illustrating
just what I’ve described. It’s from her book Domestic Work, from
Graywolf Press. Trethewey lives in Georgia
Housekeeping
We mourn the broken things, chair legs
wrenched from their seats, chipped plates,
the threadbare clothes. We work the magic
of glue, drive the nails, mend the holes.
We save what we can, melt small pieces
of soap, gather fallen pecans, keep neck bones
for soup. Beating rugs against the house,
we watch dust, lit like stars, spreading
across the yard. Late afternoon, we draw
the blinds to cool the rooms, drive the bugs
out. My mother irons, singing, lost in reverie.
I mark the pages of a mail-order catalog,
listen for passing cars. All day we watch
for the mail, some news from a distant place.
American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry
Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also
supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.
Poem copyright ©2000 by Natasha Trethewey, “Housekeeping,” from Domestic Work,
(Graywolf Press, 2000). Poem reprinted by permission of Natasha Trethewey and
the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2016 by The Poetry Foundation. The
introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate
Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. We do not
accept unsolicited manuscripts.
