In "Material," Ros Barber meditates on the disappearance of a once-ubiquitous object: the cloth handkerchief. Though the poem's speaker found her mother's frilly "hankies" deeply unfashionable as a child, she has since grown nostalgic for the simpler, more personal world those hankies evoke. The speaker laments that modern life is marked by the mass production of cheap, "disposable" objects like paper tissues, and she also feels guilty about not being as attentive a parent as her own mother was. "Material" was published in Barber's second poetry collection of the same name in 2008.
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My mother was ...
... garages and shops,
but things for ...
... up her sleeve.
Tucked in the ...
... against my face.
And sometimes more ...
... raising little squares.
She bought her ...
... gift you'd get—
my brothers too, ...
... had more snot.
It was hankies ...
... today in malls.
Hankies, which demanded ...
... buy them died.
And somehow, with ...
... of local crab
lay opposite the ...
... point!
The Annual Talent ...
... from little dears.
Nostalgia only makes ...
... to being home.
There's never a ...
... and hidden history.
But it isn't ...
... tissues and uncertainty:
and she would ...
... .
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
A Reading of the Poem — Watch Barber perform two of her poems, including Material.
The Poet's Website — Learn more about Barber's books and other accomplishments on her website.
A History of the Hanky — Learn more about the surprisingly fascinating subject of "Material."
Saturday Sessions: an Interview with Ros Barber — The poet talks about her novels, her relationship to poetry, and her work as a poetry mentor.