Wade in the Water: Poems | 
pickThis collection of poetry seamlessly merges the past and the present by including excerpts from a collection of historical documents and letters. An eloquent treatise on oppression, injustice, and familial love. #Nonfiction2022 #ImQuietOrMeditative #PopSugar2022 #AnAnsfield-WolfBookAwardWinner @Riveted_Reader_Melissa
so-so3/5
I listened to this on audio and I didn‘t love it. The narration by the author really threw me off. It felt unnatural so I couldn‘t connect. There are definitely some beautiful and heartbreaking verses in here. I think I‘ll give this another try by reading it instead. But for now, it‘s just “so-so” for me.
#ReadHarder2020
pickI really enjoyed this book of poetry. Really powerful on audio and read by the author. Highly recommend! My favorite poems were 4 1/2 and Dusk. #ReadHarder #challenge #audiobook of poetry #ReadingWomen #18 a book under 100 pages
1 Wade in the Water 📖 96 pages
2 Les Miserables 📖 908 pages
3 Macbeth 📖 copyright 1992 original publication 1623
4 Imaginary Friend 📖 October 1, 2019
#BookQuestion #est @ljuliel
pickI still have a handful of poems I want to post about from this collection, but I finished it several weeks ago & need to write a review before I forget! This was wonderful. Well-crafted poetry ranging from personal themes (my favorite, a sort of villanelle on growing up in the 70s) to more national/universal subjects (one of my favorites was an erasure poem created from the Declaration of Independence). I can see why she was the US Poet Laureate!
What is the soul allowed to keep? Every
Birth, every small gift, every ache? I know
I have knelt just here, torn apart by loss. Lazed
On this grass, counting joys like trees: cypress,
Blue fir, dogwood, cherry. Ageless, constant,
Growing down into earth and up into history.
—from “Eternity” by Tracy K. Smith
One of the women greeted me.
I love you, she said. She didn‘t
Know me, but I believed her,
And a terrible new ache
Rolled over in my chest,
Like in a room where the drapes
Have been swept back.
...
I love you in the rusted iron
Chains someone was made
To drag until love let them be
Unclasped and left empty
In the center of the ring.
pick#LetsTravelJuly Day 15: #Water and poetry. For Fats‘ full Poetry Friday post, here‘s the link: https://wp.me/pDlzr-iKa
Tracy K. Smith is Poet Laureate of the United States and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Life on Mars.
pickThe current U.S. Poet Laureate's most recent collection sits at the intersection of the personal and the history of the United States. Particularly strong are her erasure poems about black civil war soldiers seeking compensation from the government. While not as strong as her previous collection, this work shows a strong poet who in her position as laureate continues to question what it means to be American.
pickLove Smith and the heaviness and reality of her work.
"We may yet discover
The whole country
Will not come back
From the sale of parent
and child." ~The Greatest Personal Privation
pickBeautiful collection of poetry and letters. Enraging and disturbing.
Reading Envy Podcast 147: Bonus Poetry Recommendations with Lauren.
It's National Poetry Month, so Lauren and Jenny have recommendations for you. We read excerpts from some of the collections, and include links to some longer works from others. Follow us during National Poetry Month to see what else we read!
http://tinyurl.com/ReadingEnvy147
wolf hollow made me cry, y‘all. my second weekend reading stack.
Lunch read with latte. So good to get away for a little bit. #lunchread #booksandlatte
pickAnother great poetry collection from Tracy K Smith. Some of these poems are quite nostalgic and beautiful. Others deal with the history of racism in the US. Finally, some are simple observations about her children. 4⭐️
Coffee, macaron, and poetry break at a new local coffee shop. I had to take my daughter to play tennis, so I‘m hanging out here a little while.
Up next for National Poetry Month! It‘s a gorgeous spring day here in CT-finally. After a little morning reading, we are heading out to enjoy it while it lasts.
Amazing book mail! (And a fitting title for today‘s dismal weather.) ❤️
Tracy K. Smith‘s reading this evening was excellent! She mostly read from her forthcoming volume, Wade in the Water. Here I am trying to steal her copy of it while she was signing my books. She totally caught me! I guess I‘m not so smooth after all. In retrospect, I probably shouldn‘t have told her that I intended to steal it.
She read from next year's release "Wade in the Water!" There was a thunderstorm. It was worth every second of the two-hour drive to get here! #graywolf #poetlaureate
