Favourite: Political Poem.

This is a very powerful poetry collection touching on important social issues. Some my favorite pieces are the various erasure poems, though the pieces Smith wrote about motherhood are also very evocative. ( )

Five days a week, I love to open my email and read and hear the poetry that Tracy K. Smith has chosen for the listeners of her Slowdown podcast. Each segment is five minutes long and includes a most personal and thoughtful introduction to the day’s poem by poets living and dead. Like watching a band who looks like they’re having a great time playing, you can feel Smith’s enthusiasm coming through in her smooth, soothing voice.

All that said, I would say that I appreciated the way she did the podcast a little more than I did this latest collection of her poetry. Maybe my lifelong whiteness didn’t relate well to her poetry about slaves relating to Lincoln. Someday, I will read her previous collection, Life on Mars, which won the Pulitzer Prize and garnered almost universal praise. Looking at 250 years of the American experience and how that relates to the black experience could just be more than I’m looking for in some poetry. Though I’m sure to read more of her work, having the joy of poetry through the Slowdown is a wonderful fallback position.

Update:
1) She grew up in nearby Fairfield, California and has spoken about it several times on the podcast.
2) With great sadness, I report that Tracy K. Smith has stopped doing her excellent work on the Slowdown, and the podcast has been on a hiatus for many months. Hopefully, it will resume with another spokesperson at some future date. I miss her sensitivity, humor, and voice greatly. [For those interested, all the podcasts are still available on the Slowdown site online.] ( )

Broken into three parts; this stunning collection of poetry is lyrical and deep in intensity. From motherhood to slavery to contemplation each poem sucks the reader in and deserves to be savored. Tracey K. Smith is master of contemplation and care and this slim volume of poetry conveys deep meanings. Fans of poetry will eat this up and those new to prose will find themselves in love with the written word anew. ( )

This was beautiful. ( )