"The Letter" by Linda Gress (313)

The title of this poem makes it clear that its content is like that of a letter. The words are short, unimaginitive, and the verse is really conversational--just as the title implies. After reading this poem, the reader (or at least I was) struck with the fact that the speaker has gone through some sort of traumatic event or time in her life and is now recooperating. She takes life one day at a time. "I am not feeling strong yet, but I am taking / good care of myself," the poem starts off making this fact explicit. What strikes me is that this isn't, in fact, a letter--it is a poem. Which at first made me think about the fact that this poem was writting with a specific audience in mind--a person who knows and cares for the narrator, but who is somewhere far away--but then I was thinking that it might be deeper than that. The writer says, "Perhaps poetry replaces something / in me that others receive more naturally." Maybe this isn't a letter to some long lost relation, but rather a letter to herself in which she reflects on her life as it is now. I wan't expecting to find anything very deep in this poem, but I think I like that interpretation. I think that the language and style of the poem reflect the content of the poem very well. After reading it, I really want to know what the narrator has been through. I want to know what she means by "dreaming of Lorca." I also want to know if this "half a beer" which is the final image of her poem, is more signifcant than it seems. Why half? Why is this beer important?