Dear Sharon Olds,

When I was in the 4th grade, inspired by Shel Silverstein, I started to write little rhymes. Noticing my interest in words, my parents did a good thing and encouraged me to read more. My Dad and I would sometimes read together. He was enthusiastic about “The Congo,” by Vachel Lindsay. Mom let me adopt what must have been her poetry text from some high school lit course. It’s a very good book, introduced me to some of the best poems of all time, and I still have it although it’s now got packing tape instead of a cover.

I read your poems for the first time around the 5th grade. I would go into my big sister’s room and snoop through her things. The best things she owned were lipstick, CDs, a strapless bra and books of poetry. On her bookshelf, I discovered Maya Angelou and you.

Your book, The Dead and the Living, was published in 1983 the same year I was born, and that’s the one that was on my sister’s shelf. I read it cover-to-cover. Of those poems, “The One Girl at the Boys Party” and “Death of Marilyn Monroe” have stuck with me the most powerfully. I didn’t fully grasp them at the time, but I remember how they struck me. I remember your fascination with your daughter, how numbers bounded around in her head like the giant foam props on Sesame Street, how there was a sense of your love for her and her independence, and how she was on the verge of something. With “Death of Marilyn Monroe,” I understood more than I realized. I understood that there was a great value to a breathing woman. I understood that the men in the poem were affected powerfully by the death of a sexual icon, and that for each it was different. To be honest, I’m still processing that poem, but I think that’s the way it’s supposed to be with good ones.

One thing about writing is that you never know who will read your work. Did you know I would be reading your poems?

There I was, probably about the same age as your daughter was when you wrote that poem about her, reading the secret thoughts of parents. That’s what it was with that book — the secrets. I felt I’d been let in on something I wasn’t technically supposed to know yet. It was  a moment of discovery, and I have to say now that I think your writing quietly helped to shape my views on sex, gender, life and death, and growing up female in America.

So, this is all just to say thanks. I’m really glad you were out there writing, and that you’re still out there. In school, they always teach works by old and/or dead white dudes, and it’s mostly boring and moralistic at worst or subversive and homoerotic at best, and I’m just glad you were out there as an alternative. What would I have read if your poems hadn’t been there? How would I have learned about sex and the power dynamic between genders? It would not have been as beautiful, that’s for sure. I’ve come to think that art eases the learning of difficult lessons. Yours is a great example. So thanks.

Sincerely,

dirt

Tags: open letter | poetry | reading | sharon olds

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