Domestic Work

I've never been a big fan of poetry. While there are a few well written poems that I have understood and enjoyed in life, most just seemed like, um, gobbledy-gook on paper. Maybe this stems from the way we teach poetry in this country, but that's a topic for discussion on another day. These poems of Natasha Trethewey's, though, really speak to me. After hearing an interview with the author my interest was picqued, and so I bought her Native Guard book. I enjoy the voices and points of view that I hear in those poems, but these in Domestic Work are very poignant. I can imagine a way of life that I know very little about, other than stories my great-grandmother told me when I was a little girl. Trethewey's imagery is superb - she creates portraits with her words, and then gives us a little more by telling us what SHE sees these characters doing right before and after this snapshot of the lives they lead. This book goes straight to the top of my (VERY short) poetry list.

Natasha Trethewey has won the Grolier Poetry Prize and her individual pieces have been widely published in a variety of places. Domestic Work is the debut collection of her poetry and will well serve to introduce her work to a whole new audience of appreciative readers. 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 sou. 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.

I have long followed Natasha Trethewey's work in the literary magazines. Her signature style, a simplicity of syntax and vivid imagery fused with powerful voice, is one of elegance. Trethewey uses the historical, both History and personal history, as a means to bring the personal alive. Hers is not the rambling and rambunctious voice of the Confessional, and her voice rings more true because of that. A stellar student of rhetoric, Trethewey realizes that in order to bring the reader to understanding one must give the reader the means to see and feel (to encounter) and not simply confess. I am thrilled to have published poems by Ms. Trethewey in the past, including the final poem in this collection. She is one of the poets in her generation to whom I look for striking work. And time and time again, she delivers.

Domestic Work is that rare creation, a collection that will appeal to non-poets as well as to the most dedicated student of poetry. That's because Trethewey uses her translucent talent to create poems that are clear, poems that say something interesting, poems that stay with you. If you've never thought you would want to read a book of poetry, start here. If you've worked on your poetry craft for years and want to savor a master poet, buy this book. If you want to experience first-hand the special joy and pain of being mixed race, Trethewey will lead you to understand. Any poetry collection that doesn't include Domestic Work isn't complete.

"Domestic Work," by Natasha Trethewey, is the essence of well-crafted poetry. Each poem, of "Domestic Work," maintains delicate balances of "literal" meaning as well as "aesthetic" or "thematic" meaning. The thoughtful word choices, in Trethewey's work, depict vivid backdrops of sights, smells, textures and sounds. The well-chosen adjectives do not 'crowd' or distract from the themes -- both literal and aesthetic. With various foci and themes, the poems of "Domestic Work" truly beckon the reader to perform internal "domestic work" -- mentally, spiritually and emotionally.