Tracy K. Smith: Eternity UK tour, 9 – 14 June 2019

Wade in the Water

Even the men in black armor, the ones 
Jangling handcuffs and keys, what else 
 
Are they so buffered against, if not love's blade 
Sizing up the heart's familiar meat? 
 
In Wade in the Water, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith's signature voice - inquisitive, lyrical and wry - turns over what it means to be a citizen, a mother and an artist in a culture arbitrated by wealth, men and violence. The various connotations of the title, taken from a spiritual once sung on the Underground Railroad which smuggled slaves to safety in 19th-century America, resurface throughout the book, binding past and present together. Collaged voices and documents recreate both the correspondence between slave owners and the letters sent home by African Americans enlisted in the US Civil War. Survivors' reports attest to the experiences of recent immigrants and refugees. Accounts of near-death experiences intertwine with the modern-day fallout of a corporation's illegal pollution of a major river and the surrounding land; and, in a series of beautiful lyrical pieces, the poet's everyday world and the growth and flourishing of her daughter are observed with a tender and witty eye. Marrying the contemporary and the historical to a sense of the transcendent, haunted and holy, this is a luminous book by one of America's essential poets.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE FORWARD PRIZE FOR BEST COLLECTION 2018 
A New York Times Notable Book of 2018 
 
Even the men in black armor, the ones 
Jangling handcuffs and keys, what else 
 
Are they so buffered against, if not love's blade 
Sizing up the heart's familiar meat? 
 
In Wade in the Water, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith's signature voice - inquisitive, lyrical and wry - turns over what it means to be a citizen, a mother and an artist in a culture arbitrated by wealth, men and violence. The various connotations of the title, taken from a spiritual once sung on the Underground Railroad which smuggled slaves to safety in 19th-century America, resurface throughout the book, binding past and present together. Collaged voices and documents recreate both the correspondence between slave owners and the letters sent home by African Americans enlisted in the US Civil War. Survivors' reports attest to the experiences of recent immigrants and refugees. Accounts of near-death experiences intertwine with the modern-day fallout of a corporation's illegal pollution of a major river and the surrounding land; and, in a series of beautiful lyrical pieces, the poet's everyday world and the growth and flourishing of her daughter are observed with a tender and witty eye. Marrying the contemporary and the historical to a sense of the transcendent, haunted and holy, this is a luminous book by one of America's essential poets.

Smith's new book is scorching in both its steady cognizance of America's original racial sins . . . and apprehension about history's direction. . . . These historical poems have a homely, unvarnished sort of grace

The poems in Wade in the Water are full of memorable images nimbly put together by Smith's exquisite sense of timing and her feel for the kind of language appropriate to the poem.

Smith brings great intelligence and sensitivity to her poems, leading readers deeper into other people's stories and ultimately into their own humanity.

In lines that are as lyrical as they are wise . . . Smith makes connections between the current state of American culture and its history

Smith is the country's poetic caretaker, calling both for collective reckoning and collective empathy

On a craft level, these poems are impeccable. . . . I know brilliance when I read it and this book is brilliant

For Smith, poetry is hospitable: accommodating whatever she is moved to write. Her work witnesses, protests and raises its own roof. . . . Smith emerges as a poet in charge of her own creation myth and a recorder of destructive realities

Her work witnesses, protests and raises its own roof.... Excellent and bracing

Unmissable... a collection of poems exploring what it means to be a woman and a citizen in a culture directed by wealth, men and violence

Tracy K. Smith is the author of three previous poetry collections, including Life on Mars, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and a memoir, Ordinary Light, which was a finalist for the National Book Award. In 2017 she was named Poet Laureate of the United States. She teaches at Princeton University.

Tracy K. Smith

Selected Poems

'A poet of extraordinary range and ambition . . . convincing in both the grand gesture and the reverent contemplation of a humble plate of eggs' The New York Times 
 
US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith has gathered this selection spanning her entire remarkable career. From the private experience of desire to the devastations of political strife, these poems enlarge our vocabulary for what it means to live, struggle, grieve and love. 
 
'Smith's poetry is an awakening itself' Vogue 
 
'Deftly, Tracy K. Smith, the reigning poet laureate of the United States, illuminates America's generational wounds' New York Magazine 
 
'Smith is a storyteller who loves to explore how the body can respond to a lover, to family, and to history' Hilton Als, New Yorker

Tracy K. Smith

Eternity

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