Gwendolyn Brooks once defined poetry as ‘an emergency': a language of urgency and emergence. The remarkable title poem, like so many of these poems, interrogates intimacy and violence in a voice both ‘knowing and not knowing,' both mystified and revelatory. In Life On Mars she infuses her masterful gifts with wondrous intensity and tenderness. Smith's previous award-winning books established her as a meditative poet unlike any other of her generation. Smith's new collection radiates with so many different emotions-and yet, all poems ring with loss. "Whatever else you encounter in this world of words-passages of sci-fi here, a bit of formal play over there-you can count on finding elegy. Smith's latest triumph: ‘My God, it's full of stars.'" -Patricia Smith, National Book Award winner for Blood Dazzler Its title is just how I feel about Tracy K. Experiencing this extraordinary work, and wondering how best to summarize its deep shimmer, I kept returning to one of volume's most ambitious poems. Yes, she takes us cavorting in the cosmos to ponder questions of magic and mortality-but, back on earth, her wrenching sequence on the death of her father is a tour de force of unleashed pain and reflection. Smith's Life on Mars is inextricably rooted in a reality that nevertheless has the capacity to astound. "Despite it's otherworldly title, Tracy K. Media Issues, Communication & Journalism. Computer Science & Information Technology.
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