The Poetry Stash: 03Mar2024

Theories of Time and Space by Natasha Trethewey

Today’s poem is “Theories of Time and Space” by Natasha Trethewey from the collection Native Guard: Poems. The book is available for purchase here.

Theories of Time and Space by Natasha Trethewey

You can get there from here, though
there’s no going home.

Everywhere you go will be somewhere
you’ve never been. Try this:

head south on Mississippi 49, one-
by-one mile markers ticking off

another minute of your life. Follow this
to its natural conclusion—dead end

at the coast, the pier at Gulfport where
riggings of shrimp boats are loose stitches

in a sky threatening rain. Cross over
the man-made beach, 26 miles of sand

dumped on the mangrove swamp—buried
terrain of the past. Bring only

what you must carry—tome of memory,
its random blank pages. On the dock

where you board the boat for Ship Island,
someone will take your picture:

the photograph—who you were—
will be waiting when you return.

Prompts:

1.	Begin with “somewhere you’ve never been…”
2.	Begin with “what you must carry…”
3.	Draft a poem exploring your ancestry.
4.	Draft a poem about a place of historical significance like “Ship Island”. Click here for information about Ship Island. 

5. Photo above by Miklas Kroager. Use this image as a writing prompt.

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