Natasha+Trethewey

By: Arlexis Margie Orso

"Natasha Trethewey: Poetry 'showed Me That I Wasn't Alone'" //Washington Post//. The Washington Post, 1 Jan. 2013. Web. 21 Jan. 2016. **Biography**: Natasha Trethewey was born in Gulfport, MS on April 26th, 1966 to Eric Trethewey and Gwendolyn Ann Turnbough. Her parents were married illegally when she was born because the U.S. Supreme Court struck down on anti-miscegenation laws with Loving v. Virginia the year before. Her mother was noted as being colored and her father Canadian on her birth certificate. Trethewey’s mother was the inspiration of Native Guard due to her murder in 1985 from her second husband when Trethewey was just 19 years old. Following her mother’s death, Trethewey began writing poems. She recieved a B.A. in 1989 at the University of Georgia’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, a M.A. in 1991 at Hollins College, and a M.F.A. in 1995 at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her 2006 collection Native Guard. Trethewey became the United States Poet Laureate in June 2012 and is also Mississippi’s poet laureate. Natasha Trethewey is currently working as the Robert W. Woodruff Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, and also directs the Creative Writing Program. Her father is also a poet and works as a professor of English at Hollins University.

Natasha Trethewey - Natasha Trethewey Biography - Poem Hunter. "Natasha Trethewey - Natasha Trethewey Biography - Poem Hunter." Poemhunter.com. Web. 19 Jan. 2016. "Natasha Trethewey | American Poet and Teacher." //Encyclopedia Britannica Online//. Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Aug. 2014. Web. 19 Jan. 2016.

"Providence" Hunter, Natasha Trethewey - Poem. "Providence Poem." //Poemhunter.com//. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
 * 1) What's left is footage:
 * 2) the hours before Camille,
 * 3) 1969—hurricane parties,
 * 4) palm trees leaning in the wind,
 * 5) fronds blown back, a woman's hair.
 * 6) Then after: the vacant lots,
 * 7) boats washed ashore,
 * 8) a swamp where graves had been.
 * 9) I recall how we huddled
 * 10) all night in our small house,
 * 11) moving between rooms,
 * 12) emptying pots filled with rain.
 * 13) The next day, our house
 * 14) on its cinderblocks—seemed
 * 15) to float in the flooded yard:
 * 16) no foundation beneath us,
 * 17) nothing I could see tying
 * 18) us to the land. In the water,
 * 19) our reflection trembled,
 * 20) disappeared when I bent
 * 21) to touch it.

"Hurricane Camille 1969 - Google Search." //Hurricane Camille 1969 - Google Search//. Web. 21 Jan. 2016. After reading this poem I was able to find a since of connection from my experience with Hurricane Katrina. I personally was not living in New Orleans at the time of the hurricane, but seeing all of what my family had to give up left an imprint on my mind. Being able to see my grandmother’s street on television not being able to even see her home was a scary sight. My family had to experience the loss of communication with a few family members that had us terrified as well. Once we all got back in contact with one another they were able to tell us their experiences of trying to get to a safe place and having to walk over dead bodies. The first time going back to New Orleans I was terrified. I heard a lot of things such cars being stuck on the neighbors' roof. My grandmother had been back and forth from Conyers and New Orleans multiple times. She showed my pictures of her house directly after the storm. My family had to wear facial masks and gloves around the home they had just redone a few months ahead of time. She showed me pictures of their new leather couches covered in mildew. There were water stains on the wall more than half the height of my grandmother’s five foot three body. My connection with this poem is that everything you might know of can be gone in an instant. Within this poem Trethewey does not use any rhyme scheme. Lines 9 and 10 show that during bad events is one of the only times that families come together. In lines 19-21, Trethewey’s reflection disappearing in the water shows just how fast it takes for everything you think you might know of to be gone.

"History Lesson"
 * 1) I am four in this photograph, standing
 * 2) on a wide strip of Mississippi beach,
 * 3) my hands on the flowered hips
 * 4) of a bright bikini. My toes dig in,
 * 5) curl around wet sand. The sun cuts
 * 6) the rippling Gulf in flashes with each
 * 7) tidal rush. Minnows dart at my feet
 * 8) glinting like switchblades. I am alone
 * 9) except for my grandmother, other side
 * 10) of the camera, telling me how to pose.
 * 11) It is 1970, two years after they opened
 * 12) the rest of this beach to us,
 * 13) forty years since the photograph
 * 14) where she stood on a narrow plot
 * 15) of sand marked colored, smiling,
 * 16) her hands on the flowered hips
 * 17) of a cotton meal-sack dress.

Hunter, Natasha Trethewey - Poem. "History Lesson Poem." //Poemhunter.com//. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.

"Proud Little Girl on the Beach." //Xpat Files From Overseas//. Web. 21 Jan. 2016. My connection with this poem is funny. I have the kind of grandma that loves for children to pose in pictures. She thinks that it is the cutest thing ever. Growing up and always having to put my hand on my hip in every picture overtime gave me a strong hatred for that pose. My grandmother would say things like “come on, put your hand on your hip and look pretty.” That statement annoyed me so much. What is even funnier is that same pose I hated doing so much at a young age is my go to pose to this day. I always have the same little smirk on my face after every picture I take doing the pose. Just like Tretheway’s other poem “Providence”, and mostly all of her other ones, there is enjambment like in lines 1-4. “Minnows dart at my feet glinting like switchblades” (lines 7-8) is an example of a simile. “She stood on a narrow plot of sand marked colored, smiling, her hands on the flowered hips of a cotton meal-sack dress” (lines 14-17) shows a great deal of imagery. After 40 years of reminiscing about the picture, Trethewey was only a child and could remember such detail concerning exactly where she was in the picture, who was with her, and what was going on in society around her.

"Domestic Work, 1937" Hunter, Natasha Trethewey - Poem. "Domestic Work, 1937 Poem." //Poemhunter.com//. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.
 * 1) All week she's cleaned
 * 2) someone else's house,
 * 3) stared down her own face
 * 4) in the shine of copper--
 * 5) bottomed pots, polished
 * 6) wood, toilets she'd pull
 * 7) the lid to--that look saying
 * 8) Let's make a change, girl.
 * 9) But Sunday mornings are hers--
 * 10) church clothes starched
 * 11) and hanging, a record spinning
 * 12) on the console, the whole house
 * 13) dancing. She raises the shades,
 * 14) washes the rooms in light,
 * 15) buckets of water, Octagon soap.
 * 16) Cleanliness is next to godliness ...
 * 17) Windows and doors flung wide,
 * 18) curtains two-stepping
 * 19) forward and back, neck bones
 * 20) bumping in the pot, a choir
 * 21) of clothes clapping on the line.
 * 22) Nearer my God to Thee ...
 * 23) She beats time on the rugs,
 * 24) blows dust from the broom
 * 25) like dandelion spores, each one
 * 26) a wish for something better.

"Mama Flora's Family." //Mama Flora's Family//. Douglas Noe. Web. 04 Feb. 2016.

I did not have a personal connection with Natasha Trethewey’s poem “Domestic Work, 1937.” However, I was able to get a connection with a movie called __Mama Flora’s Family__. In the picture is Flora at the age of 19 when she began working at a rich black family’s home in the 1930’s. Flora went to the home thinking she would be doing the things listed in the poem and caring for the family’s sick grandmother. A little after arriving to the house she was greeted by the son and they began to have a relationship. Flora soon found out that she was only asked to work at the house to be the son’s live-in mistress. She was crushed. For the rest of her life she was the mother and grandmother everyone wished they had. Flora cooked, cleaned, and gave all of her family and friends great advice. “Toilets she'd pull the lid to--that look saying let's make a change, girl,” (lines 6-8) when I first read these lines I was thinking that the toilet was talking to her. I was soon able to tell that it was a statement she was telling herself. “The whole house dancing,” (lines 12-13) is an example of personification. Lines 17 through the end of the poem are full of personification. The personifications in the poem is a way to show the maid’s joy and peace that she is able to receive from her work-free Sundays. This also reminds me of my mother on some Sundays. When she is in a good mood she wakes up, makes breakfast, and would relax for the rest of the day with a smile on her face. From this one day, I am able to enjoy my week at school with no worries about what my fellow peers are saying or feeling. Myth
 * 1) I was asleep while you were dying.
 * 2) It's as if you slipped through some rift, a hollow
 * 3) I make between my slumber and my waking,
 * 4) the Erebus I keep you in, still trying
 * 5) not to let go. You'll be dead again tomorrow,
 * 6) but in dreams you live. So I try taking
 * 7) you back into morning. Sleep-heavy, turning,
 * 8) my eyes open, I find you do not follow.
 * 9) Again and again, this constant forsaking.
 * 10) Again and again, this constant forsaking:
 * 11) my eyes open, I find you do not follow.
 * 12) You back into morning, sleep-heavy, turning.
 * 13) But in dreams you live. So I try taking,
 * 14) not to let go. You'll be dead again tomorrow.
 * 15) The Erebus I keep you in—still, trying—
 * 16) I make between my slumber and my waking.
 * 17) It's as if you slipped through some rift, a hollow.
 * 18) I was asleep while you were dying.

Hunter, Natasha Trethewey - Poem. "Myth Poem." //Poemhunter.com//. Web. 13 Jan. 2016.

"Lori Walking Dead White Dress - Google Search." //Lori Walking Dead White Dress - Google Search//. Web. 04 Feb. 2016. The first time I read Natasha Trethewey’s poem “Myth” I was confused. It wasn’t until after reading it a few times that I felt a connection. In the 4th grade my great-grandma died of cancer. It was on a Sunday morning when my mother called me. Before the call I was playing around my house with a friend that had been staying with us. My mother’s partner at the time brought me the phone and when my mother told me the news I honestly thought it was a joke. I knew she had been sick but I thought we would have more time to spend with her. The news of her death was a huge shock that took me back to whatever a 4th grader could possibly go back to. I walked up the stairs and went straight to my older sister’s room whom had been told about the news before me. She was already being consoled by her friend that was also staying with us. She also thought that it was a joke. I chose the picture of Lori from __The Walking Dead__ wearing a white dress because in this scene she had already passed, but Rick was seeing her in her after death life from his hallucinations. At the time of her death Rick was fighting off a herd of walkers. She had given birth to their baby girl, Judith, and died right after in the arms of their older son Carl. This poem is about the death of Trethewey’s mother and the way she felt after losing her mother at the age of 19. This poem consists of a repetition called antimetabole. Antimetabole is a literary and rhetorical device in which a phrase or sentence is repeated, but in reverse order. Her connection with Erebus in lines 4 and 15 confused me. Erebus is a place of darkness in the underworld on the way to Hades. I continue to wonder what her sense of connection with the death of her mother and Erebus is.