Letters on Uncertainty, Bewilderment and Faith

Abstract

Hi Rachel, It was so beautiful to hear you describe my poems lying in your mind down between the sea and mountain—and thanks for including “Renunciation” in your class. I hope you will let me know how the students read it or hear it. “Thicket” and “Hunger” were both hard poems for me to write. I love the idea that Isaac did not know why he was going up the mountain, because the crux of the Ismail myth is that he knows and chooses to follow his father—the first suicide martyr! He says, “Do what you are commanded, father; you will find me among the faithful.” Alicia Ostriker has this terrifying read of the Abraham/Isaac myth: that Abraham has actually disobeyed God or betrayed his prophethood by agreeing to the sacrifice since Letters on Uncertainty, bewiLderment and Faith