Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

I really enjoyed this Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection by Tracy K. Smith. The poems are sorted into four parts and fluidly shift from contemplating the universe and our future to dealing with present-day harsh realities of life on earth.

"The Weather in Space" is a prologue poem that sets the tone for the entire collection:

Is God being or pure force? The wind
Or what commands it? When our lives slow
And we can hold all that we love, it sprawls
In our laps like a gangly doll. When the storm
Kicks up and nothing is ours, we go chasing
After all we're certain to lose, so alive --
Faces radiant with panic.

The poems in Part One tend to look to the heavens and contemplate the meaning of the universe and our love of science fiction. Part Two brings us crashing back to earth, as the poet deals with the death of her father. "The Speed of Belief" is dedicated to the memory of Floyd William Smith, who was an engineer on the Hubble Telescope.

Part Three is, in my opinion, the most brutal in its examination of humankind's cruelty and short-sightedness. The opening poem is entitled "Life on Mars" but, ironically, examines life on Earth and presents a series disturbing acts of violence.

4.
How else could we get things so wrong
Like a story hacked to bits and told in reverse? --

This section concludes with a poem entitled "They May Love All That He Has Chosen And Hate All That He Has Rejected," a contemplation of actual hate crimes and postcards the dead send to their assailants "from America's most celebrated landmarks." The "postcards" are so chillingly provocative that I felt compelled to look up the actual events that inspired them. Here is one from Johanna Justin-Jinich to her murderer, Stephen P. Morgan:

S --
I'm happy. I'll probably be in Greece soon, or the mountains of Chile. I used to think my body was a container for love. There is so much more now without my body. A kind of ecstasy. Tonight, I'm at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I don't know where I end. The night is starry and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.

Part Four seems intensely personal - poems that reflect Smith's loves, losses and frustrations - such as "The Universe As Primal Scream," which poetically examines the shrieking of toddlers in an upstairs apartment.

Overall, I found Life on Mars a thought-provoking collection of poems that reflect the angst of our times. It is well-deserving of the Pulitzer.

Well, this won the Pulitzer and yet slipped under my radar. It sounds like a powerful collection. That end section is quite a feat, if she's pulled it off, which from the look of things I guess she has. Some good lines you cited, and I like the structure of the separate parts. Thanks for this interesting review.

Thanks, A.M. You've definitely made me curious, especially the postcards-from-the-dead section.

Okay. That does it. I vow to re-read this book. I must've been in a terrible mood when I read it. It just didn't grab me, but I seem to be an outlier. And a Pulitzer! As soon as November's over, I'm going to read this again. Thanks.

Hey, Megan - If you are a David Bowie fan, then you will really like this book! She has an entire poem dedicated to him - and I was unaware of just how much he ran through the collection. Probably a lot more than I picked up on!

I've read other reviews of this book, but yours makes me want to rush out and buy it-thanks so much.