My Father's Love Letters

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2001

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Music

Out of fear that his mother might read the letter, concede, and come home, the speaker considers sending her a reminder that “Mary Lou / Williams’ ‘Polka Dots & Moonbeams’ / Never made the swelling go down” (Lines 9-11). The speaker’s consideration suggests that his mother once used music to relax and to find temporary relief from her worries and pains. Just as blues music originated in suffering and came about as a way of making something beautiful out of one’s burdens, the speaker of the poem implies that the mother sought to use Mary Lou Williams’ recordings as solace from the pain inflicted by her violent husband. The symbol of the song represents the speaker’s link to his mother and his understanding of her need to escape into a beautiful distraction.

Tools

The speaker describes himself sitting with his father in the “toolshed” (Line 25), surrounded by the tools of the speaker’s father’s trade. The father’s tools symbolize his competence as a mill worker. For instance,

His carpenter’s apron always bulged

With old nails, a claw hammer

Looped at his side & extensions cords

Coiled around his feet (Lines 12-15).

In addition, the “toolshed” (Line 25) contains “voltage meters & pipe threaders” (Line 20) and “a five-pound wedge” (Line 22). All of these are in contrast to the much simpler tool of the speaker: a “ballpoint” (Line 17) pen. Though not as sophisticated as some of his father’s tools, the speaker deploys the pen just as competently, though in service not to building a “wall” (Line 31) but to tearing one down, between his father and his mother.

Literacy

The father in this poem is at a disadvantage due to his lack of literacy skills. He must rely on his son “to write a letter to my mother” (Line 3), even one containing intimate words of “Love, / Baby, Honey, Please” (Lines 17-18). This strong, capable man, who can “look at blueprints / & say how many bricks / Formed each wall” (Lines 29-31) is helpless when it comes to expressing his feelings on paper, for he “could only sign / His name” (Lines 28-29). The father’s inability to write serves as a symbol of the meaninglessness of the father’s promises and his inability to follow through. The son, a capable writer, knows that nothing he writes can redeem his father for his actions; perhaps worse, the promise “to never beat her / Again” (Line 6-7) is likely an empty one.