Poems come from moments of listening to stories from others
About a decade ago, I told myself I wanted to speak less and listen more, have fewer opinions and pay more attention to facts. I don’t know that I’ve kept that vow (it did feel like a vow), but when I have succeeded in listening, the stories I’ve heard have been moving and important.
My newest collection of poetry, Talking to Strangers, contains 10 poems that come from my encounters with strangers, from those moments when I found that I was open to listening to, and hearing, what others had to say.
The series started with a conversation with a young woman in a bar back in 2011. I was compelled by what she had to say and moved that she had enough faith in her listeners to demonstrate a vulnerability, to trust that she could talk about what hurt. This poem was completed just a bit too late to make it into my previous book of poetry, and it lurked in the “drafts” folder on my computer with the fragments that eventually become Talking to Strangers.
I think chatting up the person beside me in the coffee shop or airport waiting room comes naturally to me. But what surprises me is how often small-talk evolves into a conversation that is more profound. I was working on the book throughout the pandemic, when connection with others was so precarious and the intimacy that we exchanged all the more poignant because of the strictures and challenges around it.
It this time of social division, curiosity about and openness to others’ lives and the stories they tell may indeed be a lifeline, a way of seeing each other’s humanity.
— Written by Rhea Tregebov
Tregebov appears in The One Thing: Poetry Reading and Discussion, Oct. 19 at the Fairmont. Tickets are on sale now.