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Natasha Trethewey

Natasha Trethewey Books

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Thrall: Poems

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Native Guard

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“After Your Death First, I emptied the closets of your clothes, threw out the bowl of fruit, bruised from your touch, left empty the jars you bought for preserves. The next morning, birds rustled the fruit trees, and later when I twisted a ripe fig loose from its stem, I found it half eaten, the other side already rotting, or—like another I plucked and split open—being taken from the inside: a swarm of insects hollowing it. I’m too late, again, another space emptied by loss. Tomorrow, the bowl I have yet to fill.”

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Book:Monument: Poems New and Selected
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“In the early 1970s in Atlanta, I attended what had formerly been an all-white school but had become a black school after integration and white flight. Perhaps because of this, the teachers created a curriculum that included a focus on African American literature and history year-round, not just in February.”

YearsSchoolLiteratureBlackWhiteFocusTeacherRoundsFlightAfrican AmericanIntegrationCurriculumFebruaryAtlantaAmerican Literature
Author:Natasha Trethewey
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“I used to come out here every Fourth of July as a child to picnic and to swim on the island, to tour the fort and wander through it. And all of that time, I never knew anything about the presence of black soldiers on the island. And so, for me, this was a way of trying to tell another history, a lost or a forgotten or a little-known history about these black soldiers who played an important part in American history.” Trethewey said. Coincidentally, she was born “exactly 100 years to the day that Mississippi celebrated the first Confederate Memorial Day, April 26, 1866.”

WayTryingYearsFirstsChildrenLittlesSaidImportantUsedLostBlackBornKnownForgottenSoldierWanderIslandsSwimFourthAmerican HistoryMemorialAprilJulyMemorial DayMississippiPicnicsFortsConfederate
Author:Natasha Trethewey
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“I was deeply moved by Richard Blanco's reading of his inaugural poem-a timely and elegant tribute to the great diversity of American experience. And now comes this fine meditation on his experience of coming to poetry, of making the poem and the months surrounding its making-a testament to the strength and significance of poetry in American culture, something not always seen or easily measured. Today Is For All of Us, One Today is a necessary intervention into the ongoing conversation about the role of poetry in public life.”

TodayCultureReadingRolesMeditationFineMonthsConversationDiversityMovedSignificanceTestamentElegantInterventionOngoingAmerican CultureTributePublic LifeTimelyInauguralGreat Diversity
Author:Natasha Trethewey
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“Jesmyn Ward left her Gulf Coast home for education and experience, but it called her back. It called on her in most painful ways, to mourn. In Men We Reaped, Jesmyn unburies her dead, that they may live again. And through this emotional excavation, she forces us to see the problems of place and race that led these men to their early graves. Full of beauty, love, and dignity, Men We Reaped is a haunting and essential read.”

MenWayMayProblemHomeLeftForceRaceEmotionalEssentialsDignityPainfulGravesCoastHauntingMournBeauty Love
Author:Natasha Trethewey
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“First, I emptied the closets of your clothes, threw out the bowl of fruit, bruised from your touch, left empty the jars you bought for preserves. The next morning, birds rustled the fruit trees, and later when I twisted a ripe fig loose from its stem, I found it half eaten, the other side already rotting, or-like another I plucked and split open-being taken from the inside: a swarm of insects hollowing it. I'm too late, again, another space emptied by loss. Tomorrow, the bowl I have yet to fill.”

FirstsNextFoundLeftSidesLossSpaceHalfMorningTakenTreeTomorrowLateClothesBirdEmptyFruitPreservesToo LateSplitsBowlsStemClosetsInsectsTwistedRipeJarsBruisedRottingSwarmsFigsFruit Trees
Book:Native Guard
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