Life on Mars
Genre: Poetry
Original publication date:
Book description: With allusions to David Bowie and interplanetary travel, Life on Mars imagines a soundtrack for the universe to accompany the discoveries, failures, and oddities of human existence. In these new poems, Tracy K. Smith envisions a sci-fi future sucked clean of any real dangers, contemplates the dark matter that keeps people both close and distant, and revisits the kitschy concepts like “love” and “illness” now relegated to the Museum of Obsolescence. These poems reveal the realities of life lived here, on the ground, where a daughter is imprisoned in the basement by her own father, where celebrities and pop stars walk among us, and where the poet herself loses her father, one of the engineers who worked on the Hubble Space Telescope.
Thoughts:
This is a collection presented in 4 parts and there are several themes: the cultural impact of David Bowie, the calmness of life on earth on many occasions, the death of her father, so we see grief, a few pop culture references, the horror of racialized discrimination and killings more grief and a bit of rage here (well for me, that's what it made me feel, everyone is different and might react in their own way). Some of the most powerful pieces are the ones that touch the current social events. (Current events make this even more of a compelling read, I have not seen any of her works before but I am glad to be discovering her.)
This convinces a few science words in such a way that makes you go, oh that's beautiful not sure what it means fully but it is amazing the way she uses them.
I am torn, I feel that I did not connect as much as others have to her work but her voice, her world they are beautiful!
It is a very beautiful collection and it seems magical and whimsical to see her touch and weave parts of life on earth together to create pieces of art.
I especially loved Life on Mars, the poem that granted the name to the collection.
I felt the mid of style and themes worked very well to an overall and yet there was just something I felt loss by but I was not able to identify what. I did consume this piece in audiobook, so maybe I need to reread it in a traditional format and would have the last bit to actually love it!
If you are already into poetry listening is an amazing treat as it is narrated by the author and she has a very soothing voice, but if you are not too much into audios you might want to follow along in a physical or digital way as well, that really helps.
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