Reading Life On Mars was a challenge.  i was not really understanding the direction that Tracy K. Smith was trying to make in some of her writings. i really get the sense that there is a struggle in theology and ideology. the desire for an explanation of  existence and why? this yearning to settle grief and find purpose and filling of a void `with It and CO I'm just puzzled by what "it" is. What is it that is unknown that we are apart of.

Life on Mars post

Sci-Fi
I don’t know what to think about this poem. It seems cool but the beginning almost confused me, “There will be no edges, but curves. Straight lines pointing only forward” how can something be curved but straight lines? Maybe it’s moving in a staight line? This poem just seems all over the place but I like it

Blog Post#12

I think although Life On Mars has antrounomic titles for each poems, the content is close to realistic life and politics. The poems are not quite connected to each others as a story and kind of hard to understand. But I notice the author's father has large impact in her composition. Maybe it is because of his job, the author has interest and inspiration from universe.

"I didn't want to believe
What we believe in those rooms:
That we are blessed, letting go,
Letting someone, anyone,
Drag open the drapes and heave us
Back into our blinding, bright lives."
(27. The Speed of Belief)

Among the entire book, I like this piece the most. She depict the memorial and illustrate her thoughts about life and death in a very simple and plain language, but the effect is strong and impressive. Her beliefs about funeral and death is not quite mainstream. First, she shows her thoughts that waiting for the last time of the protagonist to pass away is a waste. In her words, I feel like these are just meaningless ritual. She doesn't believes that whether a person's life is blessed or not can be easily defined by prays and wishes. But to be honest, I am not fully understand the last lines above. I am not sure "our blinding, bright lives" refers to when we are dead or when we are leaving this memorial. I guess either way reveals her rational belief of reality instead of ritual and religion. I haven't been to a memorial ever since I could remember. But I can relate to her thoughts through this poem. The waiting time during a memorial is suffering for the loved ones, and kind of boring and awkward for those guests who are not familiar with the deceased. The food and flowers are meant to decrease the awkwardness and boredom, but turns out to be the opposite of their function. Eating and flower both has meaning of the renewal of life. In a funeral or memorial, it usually means the auspicious wishes towards the guests that although the deceased is passing away, they should carry the hope of life after this ceremony. But I also feel the author's idea that these food and flowers even make the waiting time even worse, because no one would really have the vibe of eating or appreciating flowers. If I am in a funeral of someone I barely know, I would have similiar thoughts like the authors. I didn't notice at first Floyd William Smith's relation with the author. Then after a second read I realized he is the author's father. I was kind of shocked and I think this poem is much more deeper than I comprehended, because it is extremely hard for someone to think so detached in this situation.

Blog Post 12

The Speed of Belief

This poem is split into seven parts and describes the death of Tracy K. Smith's father. I think what I especially enjoyed about this section was that I was actually able to understand the poems. I'm not very into poetry and often struggle with finding out what they mean, but this section was pretty straight forward, in my opinion. The one section that really stood out to me was on page 29. The recurring theme was walking, as each stanza ended with the word "walk," but it represented more than just its obvious definition. I think it also represented Smith moving on from her father's death. She writes about him showing up in her dreams and says, "Show them out./ This bed is full. Our limbs tangle in sleep, but our shadows walk." She shows that she doesn't want her father's death to plague her in her sleep anymore. In addition, she writes "Perhaps one day it will be enough to live a few seasons and return to ash./ No children to carry our names. No grief. Life will be a brief, hollow walk." I think she's trying to form a detatchment here from the dead, suggesting the maybe someday there won't be anyone who mourns anymore. Smith is very obviously haunted by her father's death, but I think this poem holds a sense of optimism that she will be able to move on from it some day.

Blog Post #12 Life on Mars

I've never really read and analyzed poetry before until this. To help get a better understanding and grasp on Tracy K. Smith's writing, I read each of these poems aloud to one of my friends. After each reading we would try to figure out exactly what she was trying to convey. This helped immensely in understanding and really appreciating her work. Much of these poems were quite chilling and very different from the last. One of my favorite pieces from the book was "The Good Life". In this poem, Smith writes, "When some people talk of money / They speak as if it were a mysterious lover / Who went out to buy milk ad never / Came back, and it makes me nostalgic..." I understand this as Smith addressing and reminiscing on the past and the perhaps money struggles that came with youth/young adulthood. This poem very relatable but also very hopeful. Although we may be struggling now, the future has so much to offer and this soon will be all be a distant memory that we look back on and be thankful for.

Blog Post 12

I really enjoyed the poem "Sci-Fi". I enjoyed some of the predictions made by Tracy K. Smith about her future, I also liked "At Some Point, They'll Wanna Know What it Was Like" and how it focuses on how people living in what was once known as the future will attempt to look back and try to explain the past. Basically, most of the poems in this section revolve around visions of the future and thoughts about outer space and the universe.

life on mars blog post

“In the south wing, there’s a small room where a living man sits on a display” (Smith 24).

            Upon reading Tracy K. Smith’s Life on Mars, one of the first poems that really stuck out to me was “The Museum of Obsolescence.” The first time I read this poem I actually believed that she was talking about a hospital or a nursing home because of the use of “south wing.” I thought that the old man described was a patient and that this was an analogy for how people in those facilities feel like displays. However, after reading more of the poems and better understanding the style and concept of the book, I realized Smith was probably attempting to describe something different than what I thought. After realizing that a large portion of the poems center around space and the future and just science in general I have come to the conclusion that she is attempting to describe the idea of a futuristic museum where humans are actually displays. She utilizes the phrase “he’ll describe the old beliefs,” which could potentially emphasize the idea of this man representing the past. I was especially intrigued by the line “the last thing you see (after a mirror—someone’s idea of a joke?)” (Smith 25). Is this commenting on self-absorbency? Or maybe something much deeper?  I still am not entirely positive on what this poem is actually commenting on, though I still find it to be a very engaging piece that I cannot help but to keep rereading. That being said, is this poem commenting on today’s society although it is supposed to be about the future?