“But/I Ain’t Quite so Sure”: Suicidal Fantasy and Amiri Baraka’s Poem “For Hettie”

This article explores possible meanings of Amiri Baraka’s poem “For Hettie,” published in his first book, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note …. (1961). It grows out of my research on suicidal fantasy in American authorship and wonders what “For Hettie,” a poem about family and pregnancy, among other things, has to do with the suicidal fantasy evoked by the book title. Distinct from most interpretations of Amiri Baraka’s poetry, I draw on the interpersonal psychoanalytic clinical practice of asking questions about what’s literally happening in the poem. This leads to a new perspective on hatred in Baraka’s poetry where the object of hatred is more confused than decided and, thus, not clearly politically radical in the ways Baraka’s poems are generally considered to be. Moreover, the poem “For Hettie” is not often the subject of criticism or inquiry in Baraka scholarship. I suggest that this is because the poem brings together suicidal fantasy, pregnancy, interracial love, and hatred, foregrounding the importance of conceptualizing confusion as an important experience in reading poetry.