I had written here and there about my mother in my poems. There are poems for her in my first and second… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
A poem gives me a chance to have an encounter with a feeling, with an experience, with a wish, with an idea. — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
For me, a poem is an opportunity to kind of interrogate myself a little bit. — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
Keetje Kuipers' poems are daring, formally beautiful and driven by rich imagery and startling ideas. — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
I first got caught up in this marvelous feeling of being spoken to in that very direct, private, magical way by a… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
So much of my poetry begins with something that I can describe in visual terms, so thinking about distance, thinking about how… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
I think the way poems are taught to high school students is completely counterintuitive; it sets up this sense of being the… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
What excites me is that I'm an ambassador for poetry, which is something that I wholeheartedly believe in and that has been… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
A poem, necessarily, sits at a register that's different from our usual conversational voices. You have to listen more actively to get… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
I wanted to write the kind of poetry that people read and remembered, that they lived by - the kinds of lines… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
I want to just go to places where writers don't usually go, where people like me don't usually show up, and say,… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
I think tension between the intimate and the vast is at the heart of every poem by any poet, though of course… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
I know my curiosity as a writer and as a person makes me really interested in moving to parts of the country… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
Once I started writing all the time and interacting with poets, I made a conscious decision to identify myself as a poet.… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
Poems infatuated with their own smarts and detached from any emotional grounding can leave the reader feeling lonely, empty and ashamed for… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
I know that in a poem, even when the speaker is speaking from the poet's experience, there's always something that's borrowed, some… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
Lately, I've been thinking about the difference between poetry and prose, and as I've experienced it, poetry is insistent. It allows for… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
You want a poem to unsettle something. There's a deep and interesting kind of troubling that poems do, which is to say,… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
Poetry is not the language we live in. It's not the language of our day-to-day errand-running and obligation-fulfilling, not the language with… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
Joy is a part of my process. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that poetry, as a practice, necessitates… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
Rather than numbing or drowning out the difficult-to-describe but urgently sensed feelings that are part of being human, poetry invites us to… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
We all need poetry. The moments in our lives that are characterized by language that has to do with necessity or the… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
One of poetry's great effects, through its emphasis upon feeling, association, music, and image - things we recognize and respond to even… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
I feel like the older I get, the truer it feels that I'm only going have an investment in a poem if… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
When I first became brave enough to tell people that I wrote poems, so many people would rave to me about Edna… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
I go to a lot of writers conferences and literary festivals that tend to be in college towns or cities, and I'm… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
Listening to music and lyrics and watching movies, I think, uses a lot of the same muscles we use in reading and… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
For years following the death of my mother, I wanted to write about her. I started writing what I thought of as personal essays… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
“So much we once coveted. So much That would have saved us, but lived, Instead, its own quick span, returning To uselessness with the… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
“sometimes, what i see is a library in a rural community. all the tall shelves in the big open room. and the pencils in… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
I have three kids, so children's literature is a big part of my life. — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
I feel like the older I get, the truer it feels that I'm only going have an investment in a poem if it allows… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
One of poetry's great effects, through its emphasis upon feeling, association, music, and image - things we recognize and respond to even before we… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
“we like to think of it as parallel to what we know only bigger. one man against the authorities. or one man against a… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
A question is a pursuit, an invitation to envision and explore a series of possibilities, to struggle and empathize and doubt and believe. The… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
I know my curiosity as a writer and as a person makes me really interested in moving to parts of the country that I… — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
For me, a poem is an opportunity to kind of interrogate myself a little bit. — Tracy K. Smith Copy Share Image
