American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time

by Tracy K. Smith (Editor)

Selected and with an Introduction by Tracy K. Smith

Co-published by Graywolf Press and the Library of Congress, American Journal presents fifty contemporary poems that explore and celebrate our country and our lives. Poet Laureate of the United States and Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith has gathered a remarkable chorus of voices that ring up and down the registers of American poetry. In the elegant arrangement of this anthology, we hear stories from rural communities and urban centers, laments of loss in war and in grief, experiences of immigrants, outcries at injustices, and poems that honor elders, evoke history, and praise our efforts to see and understand one another. Taking its title from a poem by Robert Hayden, the first African American appointed as Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, American Journal investigates our time with curiosity, wonder, and compassion.

Among the fifty poets included are: Jericho Brown, Natalie Diaz, Matthew Dickman, Mark Doty, Ross Gay, Aracelis Girmay, Joy Harjo, Terrance Hayes, Cathy Park Hong, Marie Howe, Major Jackson, Ilya Kaminsky, Robin Coste Lewis, Ada Limón, Layli Long Soldier, Erika L. Sánchez, Solmaz Sharif, Danez Smith, Susan Stewart, Mary Szybist, Natasha Trethewey, Brian Turner, Charles Wright, and Kevin Young.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, Nonfiction, School, Contemporary, 21st Century, Teaching

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2018

About the author

Tracy K. Smith is the author of Wade in the Water; Life on Mars, winner of the Pulitzer Prize; Duende, winner of the James Laughlin Award; and The Body’s Question, winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. She is also the editor of an anthology, American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time, and the author of a memoir, Ordinary Light, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. From 2017 to 2019, Smith served as Poet Laureate of the United States. She teaches at Princeton University.

Reviews

[Brina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tracy K Smith is the current Poet Laureate of the United States and one of those few authors who could write a cereal box and I would read it. While not her writing, Smith has selected fifty distinct poems that she says are must reads and represent a cross section of American life. The collection includes works by some of my favorites Joy Harjo and Natalie Tretheway as well as a moving signature piece by Layli Long Soldier. Smith notes that these poems bring her closer to each author, which may not have been possible due to distance of time and place. Through Smith’s selections I have discovered new poets who I hope to explore more in the coming years.
4 stars

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 5 out of 5]

The world I return to when the poem is over seems fuller and more comprehensible as a result. - Tracy K. Smith

Celebration is in order for this anthology. American Journal is an anthology of 50 poems that comment on the experience of living in the United States, coming out during a very tumultuous time. Our Virgil in this exploration of US living is none other than the incredible Tracy K. Smith, current US Poet Laureate and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her collection Life on Mars. An inspiring and wonderful poet in her own right, she has organized fifty poets to comment on the “American experience” in an open and empathetic way that celebrates the cultural diversity, the struggles, sorrows and joys to build a more honest definition. These are poems rooted in the ‘promise of community’. And we are all better for it. Put out in conjunction with the US Library of Congress and Graywolf Press, this reflects an America we can believe in, a nation that exists under the oppression of hatred and bigotry this collection raises it’s voice to in opposition. Here we read the lives of those in strife, the experience of immigration, the experience of living under police brutality, of trying to connect with your culture in a land that wishes to smite it out, the experience of being human in a land that never belonged to anyone to begin with. The collection of poets is incredible and would make for a perfect introduction to modern US poetry to anyone looking for new, contemporary writers mixed with well-known favorites in a way that embraces culture and reminds us that diversity is one of the greatest strengths there is. This is a collection of a nation free to tell the story of itself without the gloved hand of American hatred holding its mouth shut or beating it down.

Tracy K Smith is a gem. Her work has always been impressive--for me this is particularly presented in Duende--and her dedication to poetry and culture is truly admirable. She is currently the US Poet Laureate and using this position well. While serving this post during a controversial and ethnocentric administration, Smith has released this collection of poems that feel like a direct rebuttal to the aggressively racist portrayals of any non-white, non-heterosexual culture. I’m reminded of when Charles Simic, Poet Laureate under the second Bush administration, promptly used the position to release an entire collection of anti-war poetry called Master of Disguises during the height of the Iraq war. Poetry is political, always, but then again so is language. And Tracy K Smith uses poetry as a way to help normalize reality and shoo away the fog of hatred that seems to have crept in on little feet and suffocated the US.

The introduction to this collection is alone worth the price of admission. Here she explains the title comes from a Robert Hayden (shoutout to my Detroit hometown poets)--the first African American to serve as Poet Laureate--poem of the same name which chronicles aliens watching planet earth and are particularly drawn to those in the US. In concluding her introduction, she says she these poems ‘bow in reverence to the mysterious unknown’ and also:

I am hoping that their courage, intimacy of address, and even the journey they collectively map out--a journey that encompasses consideration of place; reflections on family and individual identity; responses to the urgencies afflicting our collective culture; and gestures of love, hope, and remembrance--might go some way toward making us, whoever and whatever we are, a little less alien to one another.

The collection itself is astounding. So many wonderful poets (most of them my recent favorites) are brought together here: Eve Ewing, Arcelis Girmay, Victoria Chang, Danez Smith, Ada Limón, Nicole Sealey, Terrance Hayes, Layli Long Soldier, Jericho Brown, Laura Kasischke, Natalie, Diaz, Ilya Kaminsky, Natasha Trethewey, among many others. I only wish it could have been a longer collection as fifty feels like a tease. Broken up into five thematic sections, these poems culminate into a beautiful portrait of a troubled place, but one where love is teeming from sea to shining sea.

5/5

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

American Journal by Tracy Smith is a poetry collection “for our time” reflecting a greater diversity of poets than I have read since Naomi Shihab Nye’s various collections. More people of color, more queer poets, than collections I used to use in teaching high school English, hurrah. More younger poets, so you can be introduced to “the scene” in this century, such as Aracelis Girmay, Joy Harjo, Terrance Hayes, Cathy Park Hong, Marie Howe, Ilya Kaminsky, Layli Long Soldier, Erika L. Sánchez, Danez Smith, Mary Szybist, Natasha Trethewey, Charles Wright, and Kevin Young.

Vibrant. What is the world like now? Political poems, poems of kindness, poems of the heart. More accessible poems than difficult ones. A way of deciding what poets you may want to check out, a smorgasbord. I liked it a lot and took months to read it, a poem every once in while. I really liked Erika Sanchez’s “Poet at Fifteen” (I have an excerpt from her I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter in our book Growing Up Chicago), I was sort of gutted by Layli Long Soldier’s poem about the Dakota 38 (38 Native Americans who were executed by hanging by Lincoln the same week he signed the Emancipation Proclamation!!). As a teacher, I loved Eve Ewing’s poem about fifth grade.

Here's a couple from it.

From somewhere, by Danez Smith

somewhere, a sun. below, boys brown
as rye play the dozens & ball, jump

in the air & stay there. boys become new
moons, gum-dark on all sides, beg bruise

-blue water to fly, at least tide, at least
spit back a father or two. I won’t get started.

history is what it is. it knows what it did.
bad dog. bad blood. bad day to be a boy

color of a July well spent. but here, not earth
not heaven, boys can’t recall their white shirt

turned a ruby gown. here, there is no language
for officer or law, no color to call white.

if snow fell, it’d fall black. please, don’t call
us dead, call us alive someplace better.

we say our own names when we pray.
we go out for sweets & come back.

We Lived Happily During the War
Ilya Kaminsky

And when they bombed other people’s houses, we

protested
but not enough, we opposed them but not

enough. I was
in my bed, around my bed America

was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house.

I took a chair outside and watched the sun.

In the sixth month
of a disastrous reign in the house of money

in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,
our great country of money, we (forgive us)

lived happily during the war.

[Tamar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story of Girls (Tina Chang)
Years ago, my brothers took turns holding down a girl in a room. / They weren't doing anything to her but they were laughing and / sometimes it's the laughing that does enough. They held the girl down / for an hour and she was crying, her mouth stuffed with a small red cloth. / Their laughing matched her crying in the same pitch. That marriage / of sound was an error and the error kept repeating itself. / There were threats of putting her in the closet or in the basement / if she didn't quiet down. One cousin told them to stop but no one could / hear him above the high roar. After that the boy was silent, looking down / at his hands, gesturing towards the locked door. The mother was able / to push the door in and the boys were momentarily ashamed, remembering / for the first time that the girl was their younger sister. The mother ran / to the girl fearful that something had been damaged. Nothing was touched. / The brothers were merely dismissed as they jostled each other down / the long staircase. The girl sat up to breathe a little, then a little more. / Oftentimes it's the quiet cousin I think about.

We Lived Happily during the War (Ilya Kaminsky)
And when they bombed other people's houses, we / protested / but not enough, we opposed them but not / enough. I was / in my bed, around my bed America / was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house. / I took a chair outside and watched the sun. / In the sixth month / of a disastrous reign in the house of money / in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money / our great country of money, we (forgive us) / lived happily during the war.

38 (Layli Long Soldier)
Here, the sentence will be respected. / I will compose each sentence with care, by minding what the rules of writing dictate. / For example, all sentences will begin with capital letters. / Likewise, the history of the sentence will be honored by ending each one with appropriate punctuation such as a period or question mark, thus bringing the idea to (momentary) completion. / You may like to know, I do not consider this a "creative piece." / I do not regard this as a poem of great imagination or a work of fiction. / Also, historical events will not be dramatized for an "interesting" read. / Therefore, I feel most responsible to the orderly sentence; conveyor of thought. / That said, I will begin. / You may or may not have heard about the Dakota 38. / If this is the first time you've heard of it, you might wonder, "What is the Dakota 38?" / The Dakota 38 refers to thirty-eight Dakota men who were executed by hanging, under orders from President Abraham Lincoln. / To date, this is the largest "legal" mass execution in US history. / The hanging took place on December 26, 1862 - the day after Christmas. / This was the *same week* that President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. / In the preceding sentence, I italicize "same week" for emphasis. / There was a movie titled Lincoln about the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. / The signing of the Emancipation Proclamation was included in the film Lincoln; the hanging of the Dakota 38 was not. / In any case, you might be asking, "Why were the thirty-eight Dakota men hung?" / As a side note, the past tense of hang is hung, but when referring to the capital punishment of hanging, the correct past tense is hanged. / So it's possible that you're asking, "Why were thirty-eight Dakota men hanged?" / They were hanged for the Sioux Uprising. / I want to tell you about the Sioux Uprising, but I don't know where to being. / I may jump around and details will not unfold in chronological order. / Keep in mind, I am not a historian. / So I will recount facts as best as I can, given limited resources and understanding. / Before Minnesota was a state, the Minnesota region, generally speaking, was the traditional homeland for Dakota, Anishinaabeg, and Ho-Chunk people. / During the 1800s, when the US expanded territory, they "purchased" land from the Dakota people as well as the other tribes. / But another way to understand that sort of "purchase" is: Dakota leaders ceded land to the US government in exchange for money or goods, but most importantly, the safety of their people. / Some say that Dakota leaders did not understand the terms they were entering, or they never would have agreed. / Even others called the entire negotiation "trickery." / But to make whatever-it-was official and binding, the US government drew up an initial treaty. / This treaty was later replaced by another (more convenient) treaty, and then another. / I've had difficulty unraveling the terms of these treaties, given the legal speak and congressional language. / As treaties were abrogated (broken) and new treaties were drafted, one after another, the new treaties often referenced old defunct treaties, and it is a muddy, switchback trail to follow. / Although I often feel lost on this trail, I know I am not alone. / However, as best as I can put the facts together, in 1851, Dakota territory was contained to a twelve-mile by one-hundred-fifty-mile-long strip along the Minnesota River. / But just seven years later, in 1858, the northern portion was ceded (taken) and the southern portion was (conveniently) allotted, which reduced Dakota land to a stark ten-mile tract. / These amended and broken treaties are often referred to as the Minnesota Treaties. / The word Minnesota comes from mni, which means water; and sota, which means turbid. / Synonyms for turbid include muddy, unclear, cloudy, confused, and smoky. / Everything is in the language we use. / For example, a treaty is, essentially, a contract between two sovereign nations. / The US treaties with the Dakota Nation were legal contracts that promised money. / It could be said, this money was payment for the land the Dakota ceded; for living within assigned boundaries (a reservation); and for relinquishing rights to their vast hunting territory which, in turn, made Dakota people dependent on other means to survive: money. / The previous sentence is circular, akin to many aspects of history. / As you may have guessed by now, the money promised in the turbid treaties did not make it into the hands of Dakota people. / In addition, local government traders would not offer credit to "indians" to purchase food or goods. / Without money, store credit, or rights to hunt beyond their ten-mile tract of land, Dakota people began to starve. / The Dakota people were starving. The Dakota people starved. / In the preceding sentence, the word "starved" does not need italics for emphasis. / One should read "The Dakota people starved" as a straightforward and plainly stated fact. / As a result - and without other options but to continue to starve - the Dakota people retaliated. / Dakota warriors organized, struck out, and killed settlers and traders. / This revolt is called the Sioux Uprising. / Eventually, the US Cavalry came to Mnisota to confront the Uprising. / More than one thousand Dakota people were sent to prison. / As already mentioned, thirty-eight Dakota men were subsequently hanged. / After the hanging, those one thousand Dakota prisoners were released. / However, as further consequence, what remained of Dakota territory in Mnisota was dissolved (stolen). / The Dakota people had no land to return to. / This means they were exiled. / Homeless, the Dakota people of Mnisota were relocated (forced) onto reservation in South Dakota and Nebraska. / Now, every year, a group called the Dakota 38 + 2 Riders conduct a memorial horse ride from Lower Brule, South Dakota, to Mankato, Mnisota. / The Memorial Riders travel 325 miles on horseback for eighteen days, sometimes through sub-zero blizzards. / They conclude their journey on December 26, the day of the hanging. / Memorials help focus our memory on particular people or events. / Often, memorials come in the forms of plaques, statutes, or gravestones. / The memorial for the Dakota 38 is not an object inscribed with words, but an act. / Yet, I started this piece because I was interested in writing about grasses. / So, there is one other event to include, although it's not in chronological order and we must backtrack a little. / When the Dakota people were starving, as you may remember, government traders would not extend store credit to "Indians." / One trader named Andrew Myrick is famous for his refusal to provide credit to Dakota people by saying, "If they are hungry, let them eat grass." / There are variations of Myrick's words, but they are all something to that effect. / When settlers and traders were killed during the Sioux Uprising, one of the first to be executed by the Dakota was Andrew Myrick. / When Myrick's body was found, his mouth was stuffed with grass. / I am included to call this act by the Dakota warriors a poem. / There's irony in their poem. / There was no text. / "Real" poems do not "really" require words. / I have italicized the previous sentence to indicate inner dialogue, a revealing moment. / But, on the second thought, the words "Let them eat grass" click the gears of the poem into place. / So, we could also say, language and word choice are crucial to the poem's work. / Things are circling back again. / Sometimes, when in a circle, if I wish to exist, I must leap. / And let the body swing. / From the platform. / Out / to the grasses.

[K · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fifty poems in this anthology were selected by Tracy K. Smith, former Poet Laureate of the United States. Her introduction, "This is Why," is an outstanding essay about the connection between the selected poems and the human condition in America in regards to race, identity, and a sense of place. It is also a beautiful tribute to the connection between poets and their readers.

This is why I love poems: they invite me to sit down and listen to a voice speaking thoughtfully and passionately about what it feels like to be alive. Usually the someone doing the talking - the poem's speaker - is a person I'd never get the change to meet were it not for the poem.

This is why I love poems: they require me to sit still, listen deeply, and imagine putting myself in someone else's unfamiliar shoes. The world I return to when the poem is over seems fuller and more comprehensible as a result.

These sentiments resonated with me as I read these poems from fifty diverse poets. It was a unique reading experience, especially since reading poetry does not come naturally for me. As with any collection of poems, I connected with some more than others. In Defense of Small Towns by Oliver de la Paz is one because I was raised in a small town.

But I loved the place once. Everything was blonde and cracked
and the irrigation ditches stretched to the end of the earth.
You could ride on a bicycle and see clearly the outline of every leaf
or catch on the streets each word of a neighbor's argument.

...the little things about our pasts stay there,
rising slightly and just out of reach.

I condensed it for the sake of brevity, but its words ring so true for us small-town folks.

Another poem that I found so moving was Apparition by Mark Doty. His mother, with whom he had a fraught relationship and has been dead for over thirty years, speaks to him. It put a lump in my throat.

*I am so thankful to my GR poetry guru, Julie G, who has inspired me to read more poetry, and to another of my favorite GR friends, Jennifer NYC, who recommended American Journal.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I confess I am not a great reader of poetry. My favourite poet is John Keats, and while I believe he is a wonderful poet and I also love reading his marvellous letters, I'm aware that my selection is based off of a limited pool of contestants.

I am also not a great reader of American poetry. But this book was a gift, and I am well behind my reading challenge for the year. That was the premise for my initially picking up this collection.

Then two unrelated things happened that made reading this more meaningful than I could have anticipated. First, two days after I started reading this my grandmother passed away. Second, the same morning she passed, NPR's Life Kit podcast released an episode about coping with grief during the holidays that featured none other than Tracy K. Smith, the former Poet Laureate who also edited this collection.

And so I devoured the rest of the poems in this collection because it seemed like an outlet, and it was. Reading poems, so different from prose, is like reading a feeling. And this collection contains many poems about loss and sadness, so it was, somehow, miraculously, the perfect book at a perfect time for me personally.

[Joshunda Sanders · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is deceptively slim, and small. The poems, the poets within, the scope of what they write & offer, their range is wide and broad, beautiful. Our nation's Black woman Poet Laureate (easy to take for granted, but there she is, thank God) has curated a profound testimony to the depth and expanse of the full capabilities of what it means to be a relevant poet now. These poems even manage to somehow enlarge the notion of now in ways that are unexpected and beautiful.

[Glenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tracy K. Smith has curated a wonderful collection of poetry. Those unfamiliar w/ contemporary poetry would do well to sample this collection. Some of my favorite poets and poems are in these pages: Eve Ewing, Terrance Hayes, Danez Smith, Ilya Kaminsky, to name a few.

[Kristin Boldon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, varied, tragic, lovely.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection that clearly proves poetry has a place in today's world.

[Danny Caine · Rating 5 out of 5]

American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time, edited by Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, is a slim book that speaks to the wide breadth of American Experience. This collection of 50 stunning poems from a wide range of voices creates what Smith calls a "loving yet critical portrait of a nation in progress." The poems are divided into five thematic sections and they tend towards narrative and the spoken voice, but that’s all the better for Smith’s project of America telling the story of itself today. Put this book in your pocket and take it with you everywhere you go.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time was an excellent collection of poems addressing a variety of topics. I discovered a lot of new poets whose work I really resonated with, which was lovely.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

So glad I stumbled upon this tiny volume at the library. Mighty Pawns by Major Jackson brought me to tears.

[BooksAsDreams (Tiffany) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautifully curated! This was a second reading for me. It now sits on my desk for easy access when I just need to read something wonderful.

[F · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved it, a wonderful collection

[Krysha · Rating 2 out of 5]

i hate poetry

[Lindsay · Rating 5 out of 5]

That was really a quite spectacular collection of poems. They weren't all for me, but I checked the ones that I particularly enjoyed (which were well over half), and now I have a slew of new-to-me poets to check out.

[Ellice · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's good to know librarians--one of my acquaintance brought an advance reader's copy of this book back from the 2018 ALA conference for me.

It's a nice solid collection of poems. Unsurprisingly, selected as they were by our current US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, they are, as the subtitle suggests, well picked for today. The introduction by Smith is amazing and by itself well worth the price of the volume.

[Nadine in NY Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This slim volume is a wonderful collection of poems from a diverse collection of vibrant poets working and writing in the USA today. The poems are well balanced with men and women, young and old, black, white, Latinx, Asian, and Native writers all represented. And of course, each poem touches upon an aspect of living in the US, such as: a memory of childhood, an everyday observation while walking through town, a traumatic experience, the thrill of new love, the touch of a stranger in a darkened nightclub, tragedy in our collective history, moments of joy, love of one's community, a desire to belong, or sorrow at the passing of a loved one.

These are not the same old same old poems you find in every anthology; of the fifty poems, I was familiar with only about one third of the poets, and I had previously read just five of the poems, and (with one exception, Ilya Kaminsky's "We Lived Happily During the War," which had been making the rounds on social media) that's because I had read the collection in which it was first published. Most poems are one page long, a few are longer.

Smith has organized them into sections, but maybe I don't have the mind of a poet, because I couldn't always tell what she was driving at, and I may have guessed wrong when trying to describe the theme. The sections are: The Small Town of My Youth (this seemed to be mostly poems about childhood and community), Something Shines Out From Every Darkness (sadness, depression, tragedy, and hope), Words Tangled in Debris (modern day life), Here, the Sentence Will Be Respected (this section was just one poem, the only long poem of the collection: "38" by Layli Long Soldier, describing the thirty eight Dakota men who were hanged in 1862), One Singing Thing (memories of loved ones passed on).

This is a collection I will re-read again in the future.

[Darrin]

This little anthology sort of took my breath away. Some of the poets were names I knew but most were new to me. One poem that really stood out for me was In Defense of Small Towns by Oliver de la Paz. Written in 2 line stanzas, it is a longish poem and starts out with the narrator hating life in the small town of his past but then each stanza carefully describes a past memory so that you see the evolution of his thoughts until finally the ending describes how he wants to take his son back there to the small town of my youth and ends with,

to run with a cattail in his hand and watch as its seeds
fly weightless as though nothing mattered, as though

the little things we tell ourselves about our pasts stay there,
rising slightly and just out of reach.

I picked up the two books of poetry by de la Paz they had at our local library, Post Subject: A Fable and Names Above Houses. I am looking forward to reading them as well as many other books by poets I discovered in this book.

Definitely find it if you can.

[Jonathan Tennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s The Poet Laureate of the United States so you know the collection is gonna be good. I’d read a number of these before but my favorites from this collection were Reverse Suicide (by Matt Rasmussen), Downhearted (by Ada Limón), The Long Deployment (by Jehanne Dubrow), We Lived Happily During the War (by Ilya Kaminsky), and For the Last American Buffalo (by Steve Scafidi). With this many poets in one book there is bound to be something to appeal to everyone.

[N · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a beautiful collection of heartrending poetry that reflects the state of our country. Though some of the poems are gritty, and shattering, there is still beauty within. It's gracefully edited by the wonderful Tracy K. Smith, and it definitely lingers and makes you want to practice writing poetry through emulation. Reminiscent of the work of Clifton, Espada and both Patricia Smith and Tracy K. Smith herself, it is for anyone who loves good writing.

[Kristin Runyon · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone wanting to try contemporary poetry (poetry written by poets living today), this is an excellent collection of numerous poems by 50 different poets and in many different styles. Do many poems to teach and share in a classroom, including using any one of the five sections as a mentor text for how to collect poems.

[Katie Karnehm-Esh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my very favorite anthology of poetry. I love how small it is--it travels easily in a purse--but I wish it went on forever because the poems are so extraordinary. Tracy K. Smith's eye for poems by other people is as good as her eye for her own work. Pick this one up.

[Christopher Matthias · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a read!

All writing is about choosing. Choosing what is left out. Choosing what stays in. Since poetry is the most linguistically economical of the genres, every choice is even more apparent.

Tracy K. Smith is a master of choice. (So are those who chose who as poet laureate of the United States [2017-19]—whom I believe are the librarian of Congress and the poet laureate who preceded her. )

In American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time , Smith masterfully curates an anthology vividly presenting the real soul of America.

Fifty poems is extremely brief when attempting such a task. Smith accomplishes a level of intersectionality that no other aspect of America has yet to live up to. The brilliance of Smith and the choices she makes is that rather than attempting a unified voice, she relies on the power of plurality. However, in order for plurality to succeed against chaos she relies on the anchor of shared humanity within the American experience. It is intersectionally:
Young and elderly;
Immigrant, native, and domestically born;
Femine, androgen, and masculine;
Many shaded in skin tone and heritage;
Violent and serene;
Intergenerational and present;
Beautiful and ugly;
Eloquent and plain;
Metropolitan, urban, rural, and of the burbs;
Personal, familial, communal, unknown;
Rugged and tender;

What Whitman attempts in Leaves of Grass entirely on his own, Smith does with the voices of fifty incredible poets. The result is a menagerie that doesn't simply sing of itself, it sings for all of us.

[Mary Havens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Required for my Beginning Creative Writing Class: poetry focus.
My favorites included:
"Sugar and Brine: Ella's Understanding" by Vievee Francis because I could taste the sweet syrup on that ham biscuit. Yum.
"Girls Overheard While Assembling a Puzzle" by Mary Szybist because it reminded me of work when the patrons would gather in between classes and work on puzzles at work and because it took the ordinary task of putting a puzzle together and made it seem magical.
"The Poet at Fifteen" by Erika L. Sanchez because you felt like you were in that hospital with her and could understand how she got there and feel her parent's confusion and heartbreak. I chose Sanchez for a larger poetry analysis because of this poem and it pushed me in ways I would not have chosen but made me a better reader.
"Charlottesville Nocture" by Charles Wright for the incredible Southern night time imagery.
"Who's Who" by Cathy Park Hong because it slapped so hard at the end that I had to turn around and read it all the way over again to really get and appreciate it.
"The Long Deployment" by Jehanne Dubrow because of the incredible heartbreak and longing in it.
"38" by Layli Long Soldier because it was the most incredibly unique poem I've read in a long, long time. It was like reading a history paper with the right amount of emotion without being sentimental and pushing you just the right amount.
"For the Last American Buffalo" by Steve Scafidi for the imagery as well.
Great collection of modern poets - highly recommend.

[Tom Romig · Rating 5 out of 5]

What struck me even more than this wise and perceptive selection of poems is Tracy Smith's profound and healing introduction. In our ever more divisive society--ever more divisive world, actually--her insights are a welcome balm. She begins her intro by stating her theme, "This is why I love poetry." After counting the ways, she concludes with the rationale for the selection she has fashioned:

"These fifty poems take up stories old and new, and traditions deeply rooted and newly arrived. They bear witness to the daily struggles and promises of community, as well as to the times when community eludes us. They celebrate the natural world, and bow in reverence to the mysterious unknown. They do this and, inevitably, a great deal more. I am also hoping that their courage, intimacy of address, and even the journey they collectively map out--a journey that encompasses consideration of place; reflections on family and individual identity; responses to the urgencies affecting our collective culture; and gestures of love, hope, and remembrance--might go some way toward making us, whoever and wherever we fare, a little less alien to one another."

[Isabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The collection may be small, but it packs a punch with its poems. 2017 Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith crafted this collection with the theme of America in mind, and with that, the diversity of poets are a reflection of the country: Black, white, Native, Asian, Latino, old, young, man, woman, non-binary, and queer poets and writers are all represented.

As someone who hasn't read much poetry at all but wants to read more, I found this collection a great introduction to contemporary writing and poetry. I don't believe I've heard of or read any work by any of these poets, however now I have 50 incredible writers to check out.

My personal favorites were Mary Szybist's "Girls Overheard While Assembling a Puzzle," Layli Long Soldier's "38," and Eve L. Ewing's "Requiem for Fifth Period and the Things That Went on Then."

I hope to read both more poetry, and more poetry from these poets in the future.

[Paul S. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Immensely re-readable accessible home-run anthology.

From "Ten Drumbeats to God" by Nathalie Handal:

I summoned words tangled in debris, measured the distance of fire a mile in my voice. I took everything and a little more. Then I heard the drumbeats and remembered - like rain like song like light lit by old questions - there is no reason, there is god, drum, beat. there is what lingers and there is what comes later.


From "We Lived Happily during the War" by Ilya Kaminksy:

in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,
our great country of money, we (forgive us)

lived happily during the war.


From "At Pegasus" by Terrance Hayes:

How could I not find them
beautiful, the way they dive & spill
into each other,

the way the dance floor
takes them,
wet & holy in its mouth.

[Michael Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant, encapsulating anthology. Reading it feels exactly as described by Smith in her introduction: a lightning-speak of America, an intimate experience with fifty unique poets who consistently tread new ground, whether in the Pegasus night club or the massacre of Dakota men in civil-war era Minnesota, small-town Alabama or rural-college Indiana. Every poem in this collection felt fresh and exciting, with loose connecting threads jumping between the pages like following a color hue chart.

This is, by all means, a page turner. You will not want to put it down, and when you do its stories will continue to echo.