Kicks up and nothing is ours, we go chasingĪfter all we’re certain to lose, so alive -įinding a collection of poetry that veers into the speculative feels empowering. Anyone who has attended a march or protest would recognize such “faces radiant with panic” as we are confronted, one day after another, with losing things about our country that we loved without knowing, depended on without worry.Īnd we can hold all that we love, it sprawls Though this collection was first published in 2011, poems like “The Weather in Space” resonate deeply after the last two years. Where the weight words have accrued through history are in fact tools of the poet, not to be denied in press conferences. Smith in this moment to linger where consideration is given to every word, every choice. There is something soothing, then, in reading Tracy K. Poetry, in short, is the opposite of Twitter. It is vehemently intentional, not spewed while stopped at a traffic light or in line at the grocery store. Poetry is also private words chiseled into something precise, complex. We are told what to think so often these days that it is a quiet relief to feel the opposite taking place, to learn from the inside out. Poetry articulates the things we don’t know we feel until we have read them through an image, a moment, or a phrase-captured feeling. And it even makes such pains beautiful––like a bruise blossoming or a far-off star burning. It airs the things that hurt without our understanding why. Poetry communicates the pains that connect us, and those that isolate us. So many of those entrenched in today’s online vitriol don’t have the words to understand their anger, or their fear. And yet, in this moment – as an anti-science, fear-driven climate settles over our country and casts a shadow over the world – Smith’s stunning, stargazing verse delivers moments that border on transcendent. Smith has been US Poet Laureate since 2017, and this particular collection won the 2012 Pulitzer in poetry. Smith’s Life on Mars is not a revelation. For Those “End of Days” Days (aka After Reading The News)

Smith life on mars