Dear Elizabeth Alexander,
When my teacher said we were going to be doing this and I thought I would hate it. But once I chose your poem and read it my attitude changed. Your poem brought feeling of sadness and in the following paragraphs it explains why it hit me so hard and why I fell in love with it.
The first time I saw the poem the title didn’t make sense but once I read the poem the title finally made sense because of the last few lines. Line “Did sleep elude me because I could feel / the heft of unuttered love in his tending / our small bodies, love a silent, mammoth thing” gave the title more of an emotional feeling. After reading the poem two or three more times it still had the same emotional feeling.
Your poem really hit home with me because I live with my grandparents and my grandpa has always been there to help me but now he is fighting for his life due to pancreatic cancer. The line “Did sleep elude me because I could feel / the heft of unuttered love” really hit me hard because it is hard for him to talk which means it is hard for him to say I love you.
It also struck a chord with me because I feel like the grandpa because I have to help my grandpa peel fruit, walk the kitchen, cut his food and feed it to him. He has lost all feeling in both hands because of blood clots which means he can’t hold the knife and fork so I have to feed him.
Thank you for writing the poem because it is the best poem that I have ever read. It would be nice for you to respond but I know that there are going to be a lot of entries so it will be quite suspenseful of a wait. But like I said thank you for writing the poem.
Sincerely
Allen
Grade 10
New Palestine, Indiana