Saturday Poetry – ‘Everybody’s Autobiography’ by Tracy K. Smith
Saturday Poetry – ‘Everybody’s Autobiography’ by Tracy K. Smith
This week’s Saturday Poetry brings you the soul-stirring poem titled ‘Everybody’s Autobiography’ by Tracy K. Smith. She is the author of Such Color: New and Selected Poems(Graywolf Press, 2021), Wade in the Water (Graywolf Press, 2018), winner of the 2019 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry, Life on Mars (Graywolf Press, 2011), winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Duende (Graywolf Press, 2007), which received the 2006 James Laughlin Award. Smith served as the poet laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019. She explained ‘this poem emerged from a dream that challenged me to embrace a wider radius of compassion in my daily living. It has, for me, become a kind of psalm for living in a world at war, and maintaining an investment in the safety and sanctity of strangers’.
For this edition of Saturday Poetry, we have paired Tracey Smith’s emotive words with mobile art by the talented @zal.riani with the captivating artwork entitled ‘Fuji in Rio…’ complementing the poem’s essence beautifully, creating a symphony of emotions.
To view the others we have published in this section, go here.
via Poets.org
Saturday Poetry – ‘Everybody’s Autobiography’ by Tracy K. Smith
I find myself most alone
When I believe I am striving for glory.
These times, cool and sharp,
A monument of moon-white stone
lodges in place near my heart.
In a dream, my children
Glisten inside raindrops, or teardrops.
Like strangers, like seeds of children.
I will only be allowed to claim them
if I consent to love everyone’s children.
If I consent to love everyone’s children,
Only then will I be allowed to claim them,
My strangers, my seeds of children,
Glistening inside raindrops or teardrops
In my dream. Children
Lodged in place near my heart—
A monument of moon-white stone,
Cool and sharp.
I believe I am striving for glory
When I find myself most alone.
Please support us
TheAppWhisperer has always had a dual mission: to promote the most talented mobile artists of the day and to support ambitious, inquisitive viewers the world over. As the years pass TheAppWhisperer has gained readers and viewers and found new venues for that exchange.
All this work thrives with the support of our community.
Please consider donating to TheAppWhisperer as this New Year commences because your support helps protect our independence and we can keep delivering the promotion of mobile artists that’s open for everyone around the world. Every contribution, however big or small, is so valuable for our future.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter is a British photographer, photography journalist, editor and curator and the founder and editorial director of TheAppWhisperer.com, an independent international photography publication established in 2009.Her journalism, criticism and commentary have appeared in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, BBC, Vogue Italia, LensCulture, Popular Photography, Android Magazine, NikonPro, DPReview, Which Digital Camera and Which Camera. She has lectured internationally on photography and mobile art, served as a juror for international photography awards, and exhibited her own photographic work across the UK, Europe, South Korea and the United States.Alongside her editorial work, Joanne's photographic and postgraduate research explores death, grief, memory, representation and social inequality through contemporary photography, participatory practice and visual research methods, with the longer-term aim of developing this work through doctoral research.Through TheAppWhisperer, she continues to publish independent photography journalism spanning contemporary photographic practice, mobile imaging, photographic apps, computational photography and emerging imaging technologies.Joanne is available for editorial commissions, photography projects, judging, curatorial work, speaking engagements, consultancy and selected collaborations.
