The Birdcage

The Birdcage

Coax the night into being. Or lie quiet as bedrock beneath. On either shore: mountains of men,Oceans of bone, an engine whose teeth shred all that is not our name. Like famished birds, my hands strip each stalk of its stolen crop: our name. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. The waters were living waters, the grass was living, the trees and the animals were more alive than on earth. She earned a BA from Harvard University and an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. The poem in question is called “Declaration”; you can read it on the Poetry Foundation website, where there’s also a recording of Smith reading the poem aloud. In 2014 she was … As far as I know, Juan Felipe Herrera recently entered his second term as Poet Laureate. Not that I didn’t believe it, but I was intrigued. I continued rising until I passed through the roof itself and found myself in the sky. Smith, who might be poetry's most generous ambassador, will discuss that love Nov. 21 in St. Paul as the final guest of this year's Talking Volumes series. Dana Isokawa the associate editor of Poets & Writers Magazine published an online exclusive about Smith’s selection. I began to move much more quickly past the mountain range near the hospital and over the city. I could perceive the Earth, outer space, and humanity from a spacious and indescribable ‘God’s eye view.’ I saw a planet to my left covered with vegetation of many colors no signs of mankind or any familiar shorelines. she fed me clothed me kept me safe albeit in excess five layers in spite of subtropical winter heat so much to eat I neededdigestive pills to ward off the stomach’s sharp protest how not to utter the un- grateful thing: that I am irrevocablyher object Originally published in Poem-a-Day on June 17, 2017, by the Academy of American Poets. Then she realized that truth could arise via “puzzling something out, or questioning, or even just being honest about what is not known.”. Yesterday the Academy of American Poets published a quick interview with Smith entitled “Four Questions for U.S. That work pulls in voices from the margins, from history. And that hasn’t exactly been done before?”. “Let’s talk about the death of our parents and about ancestry.”, Upon being appointed poet laureate, Smith asked herself: “What can I do that would be worthy of that? Tracy K. Smith poems, quotations and biography on Tracy K. Smith poet page. Like any world, it will flicker with lights that mean dwellings, Traffic, a constellation of need. A fire-white ghost. Hospitals are “clinical, impersonal, burdened by all the possible complications that might arise,” she ponders, “but they’re where we go when we’re vulnerable and weak. This love was all around me, it was everywhere, but at the same time it was also me. Jenna Ross is an arts and culture reporter. And did you feel yourself caught there, wanting to let go, to run, to be called back to wherever your two tangled souls had sprung from. And let it dangle between you like a locket on a chain. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith Shares Her National Poetry Month Tips The Pulitzer Prize-winning poet says "The chief task of the poet is to … Tracy K. Smith was born in Massachusetts and raised in northern California. I haven’t been able to find an official start date, but the Librarian of Congress’ article announcing Smith’s selection says, “Smith will take up her duties in the fall, opening the Library’s annual literary season in September with a reading of her work in the Coolidge Auditorium.”. Tracy K. Smith served as U.S. poet laureate from 2017-19 and teaches at Princeton University.

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