“How not to think of loss, how it takes hold and grows: like lacuna snails, slow and deliberate, on a reed? Why is everything I see the past I've tried to forget?” PastPoetryGrowthLossGriefPoemForgettingSlowness Book:Monument: Poems New and Selected Source: Monument: Poems New and Selected
“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.” DeathPoetryLossGriefPoemMourningFigsTidying Book:Monument: Poems New and Selected Source: Monument: Poems New and Selected
“you learned from a Korean poet in Seoul: that one does not bury the mother's body in the ground but in the chest, or--like you-- you carry her corpse on your back.” DeathPoetryLossGriefPoemMourningMothersDeath Of A Mother Book:Monument: Poems New and Selected Source: Monument: Poems New and Selected
“My own journey in becoming a poet began with memory - with the need to record and hold on to what was being lost. One of my earliest poems, Give and Take, was about my Aunt Sugar, how I was losing her to her memory loss.” NeedsGivingLostMemoriesMy OwnLossRecordsJourneyPoetBecomingLosingSugarAuntGive And TakeMemory LossLost OnesLosing Her Author:Natasha Trethewey
“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 Source: Native Guard
