Frances Richey

Since the publication of the poem, Inventory, in the New York Times Magazine, I've received a number of e-mails asking about the poem, so I thought I'd give those of you who asked a little background. When my son, Ben, was preparing for his first deployment to Iraq in the fall of 2004, I asked him to go through his gear with me and to show me all the things he had to do to prepare. I wanted to know as much as he could tell me, and he was very generous in taking the time to share all that he was allowed to share. Somehow, knowing the particulars, even those that were hard to hear, helped me to be with him without crying, and to accept the reality that he was going to go. The list became a kind of portrait of him...his interests, his values, what he was prepared to sacrifice, his caring nature and the tough decisions he had to make before he left.

I don't know the origins of all the books and personal items on the list. I didn't ask him those kinds of questions. In any poem there are always unanswered questions, and in my own work, I am often surprised by lines and memories that come in spontaneously, like those interjections of my own thoughts.

Each of us, who are parents of soldiers, have our own ways of coping. Mine was to learn as much as I could before Ben left about his preparations. While he was there, I read everything I could about what was going on in Iraq. I became a CNN junkie, and watched all the news. I don't know why that helped me cope, but it did, and it all started with that first list that became the poem, Inventory.