Life on Mars: Poems | 
#NationalPoetryMonth Day 12: The tagged volume is one of my favorite poetry collections of all time. Smith's work is so unusual, so memorable. Link to full poem:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55518/the-universe-as-primal-scream
an excerpt from "Don't You Wonder Sometimes?" Tracy K. Smith's poem about David Bowie.
Full poem https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55520/dont-you-wonder-sometimes
#icon #poetrymatters @TheSpineView
so-soThis just washed over me, not in an unpleasant way just not a particularly memorable way.
pickLoved these poems; some so sad, others so hopeful. This is one to be read slowly, and savored, and then revisited often.
DON'T tell me I'm the only one annoying their co-workers by blasting this at the moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo &
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZKcl4-tcuo
#PerseveranceRover
pickThis was just not a brilliant match between reader, format, and book. Still a pick because there were some poems I liked in it, but in general I didn't get much out of it. It didn't help that apparently there were a lot of references to David Bowie songs, which went straight over my head. I'd like to revisit the author's work in text format some day.
#ReadHarder2020: an audiobook of poetry #ReadHarder
I keep having to look again to check that this book was actually published in 2011. It's weirdly prescient - she wrote a poem that sounded like a eulogy for David Bowie before he actually died, and the poem I just listened to talks about war with Iran and election fraud. I guess prescience fits the science fiction theme anyway.
#ReadHarder2020: an audiobook of poetry
I'm not much of a poetry reader and not much of an audiobook person, so this is a hard one. I'm finding it's going in one ear and out the other, and I'm not retaining much. Poetry already makes me feel insecure (thanks, English teachers!), and I don't think the audio format does me any favors. Kind of want to pick this up as a print book later to see what I'm missing. #ReadHarder
pickMy last read of 2019 and a great one. I‘m compelled to post half the poems in Litsy posts but I will refrain! #poetryMatters
...So much for the flags we bored
Into planets dry as chalk, for the tin cans we filled with fire
And rode like cowboys into all we tried to tame.
—from “The Universe: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” by Tracy K. Smith
Tina says what if dark matter is like the space between people
When what holds them together isn‘t exactly love, and I think
That sounds right—how strong the pull can be, as if something
That knows better won‘t let you drift apart so easily, and how
Small and heavy you feel, stuck there spinning in place.
"And look at the dog // Still passed out cold, twitching in a dream. // When we stop talking, we hear the soft sounds / He makes in his sleep. Not quite barking. More like // Learning to speak. As if he's in the middle of a scene / Where he must stand before the great dog god // Trying to account for his life."
-"Aubade"
?❤
"Once upon a time, a woman told this to her daughter: // *Save yourself.* The girl didn't think to ask *for what?* // She looked into her mother's face and answered *Yes.* // Years later, alone in the room where she lives // The daughter listens to the life she's been saved from: // Evening patter. Summer laughter. Young bodies // Racing into the unmitigated happiness of danger."
-"No-Fly Zone, 3"
"Some of the prisoners were strung like beef / From the ceilings of their cells. "Gus" / Was led around on a leash. I mean dragged. / Others were ridden like mules. The guards / Were under a tremendous amount of pleasure. / I mean pressure. Pretty disgusting. Not / What you'd expect from Americans. / Just kidding. I'm only talking about people / Having a good time, blowing off steam."
-"Life on Mars, 7"
"Some like to imagine / A cosmic mother watching through a spray of stars, // Mouthing *yes, yes* as we toddle toward the light, / Biting her lip if we teeter at some ledge. Longing / To sweep us to her breast, she hopes for the best // While the father storms through adjacent rooms / Ranting with the force of Kingdom Come, / Not caring anymore what might snap us in its jaw."
-"My God, It's Full of Stars, 1"
All nine of my library holds came in at once. ☺ First up is Life on Mars.
I started this on audio yesterday, and am LOVING it—the voice, the language, and the themes are so fresh and original. I had a writing prof in college who used to say that the best fishing is “far from the Jeep”—and so is the best poetry. These are definitely “far from the Jeep”, and SO good. I requested a print copy from the library, because I know I‘m going to want to get my eyes on these as well as my ears.
pickDo you like poetry, sci-fi and David Bowie?
If you do then you want to read this collection by a Pulitzer Prize winner.
I was so entranced by it on audio last night I wasn‘t paying attention and grabbed the hot side of a iron at work. (I‘m a idiot)
Wonderful audio but I also want to get a physical copy to see it all written down and take my time with the words.
pickIncredible collection of poetry. The triptych on Bowie is wonderful. Excellent language and exploration of the endlessness of space and time and the relationships we attempt to contain within it.
pickLoved this collection. Such interesting perspectives on so many difference things.
Years later, alone in the room where she lives
The daughter listens to the life she's been saved from:
Evening patter. Summer laughter. Young bodies
Racing into the unmitigated happiness of danger.
pickA stunning collection of poems by the current Poet Laureate of the US! From odes to ScFi such as Kubrick's 2001 to memories of her father (who helped develop the first Hubble telescope), she takes you beyond the heavens and brings you back down to Earth. I especially enjoyed her clean style, no wordiness and drawn out metaphors.
Having not read poetry in a while this was a great contemporary read to get back into it. 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟 🌟!
#diversespines spine poetry. I found this on scribd after hearing about it on lit hub. Pulitzer Prize winning poetry inspired by Bowie! How can you not want to listen to this?!
I noticed this earlier today. I'm extremely excited. Life on Mars is one of my favorite books of contemporary poetry. With this tomorrow & Madeline Miller & Nnedi Okorafor on Saturday,it is shaping up to be quite the bookish weekend!
This is from an interview with Jacqueline Woodson & Tracy K. Smith on the question of why poetry is much more widely appreciated in children‘s literature than it is by adults. Read excerpts from the interview here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/books/tracy-k-smith-and-jacqueline-woodson-ta...
Hello, FriYAY! Been missing you since Monday!
The Hobbit #192019challenge #1937
Life on Mars #bowie inspired speculative poetry
Carrie #losersclub
Daughter of Fortune, White Teeth, and Love in the Times of Cholera #mounttbrchallenge
pick"After dark, stars glisten like ice, and the distance they span /
Hides something elemental. Not God, exactly. More like /
Some thin-hipped glittering Bowie-being—a Starman /
Or cosmic ace hovering, swaying, aching to make us see."
I was pretty much destined to love a book of poetry with Bowie references, but this blew away all my expectations and my mind with them. The Pulitzer is well deserved.
My first poetry read of the year. I'll count this toward my black history month reads. This quote is from the last stanza of part one of the second poem in the book. It's specifically about a rural library... But it's really about the universe. Or perhaps awareness of the universe and how small one man, rallying against the world, truly is. At least that how I took it.
“The best was having nothing. No hope. No name in the throat and finding the breath in you, the body, to ask.”
I made my January pick for #PoetryChallenge2018 and it‘s Tracy K. Smith! When she was chosen as Poet Laureate last summer, I am very embarrassed to admit that I had never heard of her 😬 Looking forward to getting to know her now.
My older son, who is away at school, sent me some bookish birthday presents!
pick“A poem cannot live in hate, a poem cannot live in anger.”
Tracy K. Smith, Poet Laureate of the United States, gave the Emily Dickinson Poetry Lecture at my university yesterday. She shared old poems and new poems and a moment wherein we (she and those of us in attendance) existed in the same small fraction of the history of eternity—together. #poetry #poetlaureate #poem
When you're able to find a book in under five minutes in a huge university library that uses the Library of Congress classification system and make it to your next class on time. 🙌🏽
From "Don't You Wonder, Sometimes?" By current US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith. You can find the entire poem at www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55520/dont-you-wonder-sometimes
#Septembowie #spaceoddity @Cinfhen @Marchpane
pickSolid collection. I especially liked this poem and its cousin poem, "Us & Co."
Excited to read this collection by our new Poet Laureate.
