He'd 'read Larry Niven at home and drink scotch on the rocks,/ His eyes exhausted and pink.' A good part of the book reflects her reactions to his death in 2008. There is a sci-fi tilt to ]’s book of poetry, her father was an optical engineer who worked on the Hubble telescope. What soared-and what grieved-when you aimed your willĪt the yes of my body alive like that on the sheets? ( ) To descend into flesh, fault, the brief ecstasy of being.įrom what dream of world did you wriggle free? What we passed back and forth between us like fire. This one is about the presence of her own child before conception:įor what felt like forever, wanting to be I didn't understand all of the poems, but many of them I found stunning, or really interesting, or both! In the end, my limits were tossed aside as Smith explored life, death, piracy, space, love, Bowie and her father (who worked on the Hubble Telescope). Or stanzas that are sometimes three lines and then often two. I am more of a traditionalist: I do not care for lines that extend into the next one, stopped by punctuation halfway in. But I heard Smith speak and loved her as a person and I bought this book, which won the Pulitzer Prize. In fact, since graduating college, probably only the poems that friends have posted on their threads here on LT. So, let me be clear: I do not read a lot of poetry. In my city we have a poetry bookstore, so I might go in later this year and see if they have suggestions on more poems, and also on ways to really understand and read them. I’m not sure how much more poetry I’ll choose to read. In one section of it, she has the murdered writing postcards to their killers. Smith explores some particularly hate-filled murders (hopefully you know what I mean by that), including that of abortion provider George Tiller. The poem “They May Love All That He Has Chosen and Hate All That He Has Rejected” was especially powerful, as Ms. I can see myself going back to it in the future, re-reading some of the poems. Having read it, I’m sure that I’m missing some layers of meaning, but even with that acknowledgment, I can still say that I enjoyed this collection.

This slim collection seemed manageable, plus I loved the cover. Review: As I mentioned in the title, I don’t believe that I’ve read any poetry since high school. Why I chose it: There’s a poetry square on the summer reading BINGO I’m playing, and I figured, why not start with something from our nation’s Poet Laureate? In a nutshell: Collection of poems about life. Best for: People unsure about poetry but looking for a way in.

Life on mars poetry collection