Saeed Jones’s “A Stranger”

From The New Yorker's archive: a poem by Jones about his mother, who died in 2011.  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌   View in browser | Update your preferences   Photograph courtesy Hoss Ghertassi   Poems "A Stranger" "I wonder if my dead mother still thinks of me." By Saeed Jones The poet and writer Saeed Jones composes intuitive verses and prose that linger in the imagination. Jones has enjoyed a varied career, working as a culture editor and advice columnist at BuzzFeed and co-hosting a morning show, "AM to DM," with Isaac Fitzgerald, which offered dry, witty takes on the news. The winner of the Pushcart Prize for poetry, in 2013, and the author of the collection "Prelude to Bruise," Jones brings an exhilarating clarity to his work. He left "AM to DM" in 2019, the same year he published a memoir, "How We Fight for Our Lives," which won the Kirkus Prize for nonfiction. In 2020, The New Yorker published "A Stranger," a poem by Jones about his mother, who died in 2011. The verse is short but ravishing—a compressed catechism of bereavement. " 'I wish I knew / a woman who was both the light and every shadow / the light pierces,' " he writes. "I wonder if a passing glance at my dead / mother is enough to make a poet out of anyone. I wonder / if I'm the song she hums." Jones unravels and reconfigures language like he's untying a knot, then rethreads the strands in a delicate new construction. The verse is haunting, yet its focus remains on the living—those left behind, whether unmoored by their sorrow or resolutely, even avidly, continuing to reaffirm their own existence. Jones writes in the space between wreckage and resilience. He offers a calibrated reckoning with his own grief, cradled in ambiguity—and we wait, holding our breath, to see what is tendered next.   —Erin Overbey, archive editor More from the Archive     Page-Turner Saeed Jones's Striking Memoir About Race, Sex, and Self-Invention From 2019: To be black, gay, and American, the book suggests, is to fight for one's life. By Katy Waldman     Poetry Podcast Margaret Atwood Reads Saeed Jones From 2020: Margaret Atwood joins Kevin Young to discuss "A Stranger," by Saeed Jones, and her own poem "Flatline." You're receiving this e-mail because you signed up for the New Yorker Classics newsletter. Was this e-mail forwarded to you? Sign up.   Unsubscribe | Manage your e-mail preferences | Send newsletter feedback | View our privacy policy    The New Yorker may earn a portion of sales from products and services that are purchased through links in our newsletters as part of our affiliate partnerships with retailers.    Copyright © Condé Nast 2021. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.