In the first episode of 2019, Connor and Jack discuss Natasha Trethewey’s “Letter.” Jack calls Connor out for his poetical preferences, Connor waxes abstractly about associative logic, both explore how things as small as a letter can reveal our most profound grief. A Dybek umbrella descends.
Read the poem below.
More on Natasha Trethewey, here: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/natasha-trethewey
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Letter
By: Natasha Tretheway
At the post office, I dash a note to a friend,
tell her I’ve just moved in, gotten settled, that
I’m now rushing off on an errand—except
that I write errant, a slip between letters,
each with an upright backbone anchoring it
to the page. One has with it the fullness
of possibility, a shape almost like the O
my friend’s mouth will make when she sees
my letter in her box; the other, a mark that crosses
like the flat line of your death, the symbol
over the church house door, the ashes on your forehead
some Wednesday I barely remember.
What was I saying? I had to cross the word out,
start again, explain what I know best
because of the way you left me: how suddenly
a simple errand, a letter—everything—can go wrong.
