Blog Post 10

Dear Tracy K. Smith, I recently met your poem "My Good, It's Full of Stars" in the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Life on Mars" collection, and I to be honest I'm not familiar with your work. However, the way you weave together science fiction images with deep existential questions about our place in the universe is absolutely fantastic.

Your lines about how "the movie is the stars disappear, but their light / stay put" seemed like a great metaphor for heritage and memory. However, I wonder if heritage really matters at all or if people actually care about one's legacy.

The way you balance scientific precision with emotional resonance throughout the poem is also fantastic. When you describe the universe as "sealed tightly, so nothing escapes", this does a great job at capturing a balance between being locked in and boundlessness.

On another note, do you ever have to struggle to write? Or are there times when there is just no inspiration? Conversely, are there times where the words cannot come out quick enough? I lowkey struggle to write in my English class. It's almost as if I have to be in the proper and very specific mode to write a poem.

Thank you for your time

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