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.

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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?

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'The Universe Is A House Party' (Pg 13)

This poem was interesting to me because of how the title grabbed my attention. It kind of switched the mood up and made it more hospitable. The first sentence "the universe is expanding" draws a picture of how vast space really is and makes me wonder what is really out there. I think its cool how Smith tries to relate a party, something you may never want to end, to the universe that is never ending. Also, I liked the idea of aliens being welcomed to our "party" and it made me think of all the memes related to the Facebook event where people planned on raiding Area 51.

Blog Post #12

"Life on Mars" by Tracy K. Smith (pg. 37-42)

This poem caught and held my attention more than any of the other poems in this collection for a few reasons. Originally, I thought "Life on Mars" was the name of the whole collection; I didn't know there was an actual poem called "Life on Mars". When I came across it, I was surprised that it was itself a poem. My first thought was "I better really pay attention to this one. It's gotta be important I mean it's what the whole collection is named after". I soon found that the more I tried to understand the poem, the more confused and disoriented I got. The first stanza got me hooked as it talked about dark matter and I thought it was going to be kind of sciency (which is probably the only type of poetry I could understand). I got completely thrown for a loop two stanzas later when it talks about a father who held his daughter and others captive in cells beneath his house. The rest of the poems snaps back and forth from a calm scientific discussion to a the ugly “prison” scene (I can’t really tell what context the different prisoner scenes are in and if the two main ones are even the same. Why is there this mixture of despair and almost pleasure? Do these prison cutaways have anything to do with sex?) to heavy existential analysis and questions. To say the least, this poem is jarring. Just when you think you know what’s going on and what’s coming next, it throws you a curveball. I felt uncomfortable while reading this I could barely make sense of what was going on. Then I had this thought that maybe that’s the intention. I tried to find out what the title had to do with anything because Mars was never even mentioned. Then it hit me. The poem is meant to make our own world’s different moving parts seem completely out of place in the context of one another. The productive scientific discussions are juxtaposed by the near-barbarism we see in the prison scenes. The poem seems like it is meant to show how alien our own planet is to itself, almost as if we are all living on Mars in a way. There is so much unknown about our world, so many anomalies, so many atrocities and delights happening side by side that everything seems alien to one another. Even the poem has out of place words to further get this point across. “The guards were under a tremendous amount of pleasure. I mean pressure” seems to contradict itself. Do the guards enjoy the situation or dread it? Later on in the same stanza, it says “Just kidding. I’m only talking about people having a good time, blowing off steam”. This basically undermines everything the speaker as said before. What can we believe, if anything? Is this a positive or negative environment? What does that have to do with anything else explored in the poem, such as the deep existential questions it asks? This poem really messed me up and I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone else thought to see if I am completely misinterpreting everything. For now, here’s an actual picture of me trying to understand this whole collection.

Blog Post 12 Life on Mars

"Savior Machine" page 22

I chose this poem because I can relate to it on a personal level. When I read this poem I pictured a girl in therapy and then seeing her therapist on the street and realizing they are also a normal person. Not just a "theory" that has helped her with healing. My younger sister went to therapy for a while for her anxiety disorder so I know how close someone can become to their therapist like how Smith says "gradually it felt like a date with a friend".  Smith says how she sees this man as "a human hand reading down to lift a pebble from my tongue". I interpreted this as the patient slowly healing and being able to speak out and talk about how they are feeling without a therapist. I really enjoyed this poem and the symbolisms and imagery it gave me. I think the topic of therapy and mental health is very important and this is a great way to discuss the topic.

Blog Post #12 Life on Mars

They May Love All That He Has Chosen And Hate All That He Had Rejected (page 48)

This poem is one of the several that I sort of knew what was going on, and one I thought was quite unusual. The tone of this poem has changed over every part - from indifferent and cold to understanding. The part "In Which the Dead Send Postcards to Their Assailants from America's Most Celebrated Landmarks" was very interesting. In those letters the dead wrote in peace and humble. I could sense that Smith was suggesting seeing the tragedies from both the dead and their assailants' perspectives, so that we could turn our rage and hatred to a mutual understanding, but that's all I could grasp.

I don't know if it was because of the language (there were a lot of words I have not seen before,) or some other reasons, I had a hard time understanding the poems inking on the pages. So I just captured the parts that were within my ability, and enjoyed the melody of the poetry as a whole (I used an audible book as a means of help, and surprisingly it was read by Tracy K. Smith! Her voice was so comforting, and reminded me of days in a fall or winter). Anyway, I am looking forward to our class next week and listening to everyone's experience of reading this poetry!

Life on Mars

You stepped out of the body.

Unzipped it like a coat.

And will it drag you back

As flesh, boys, scent?

What heat burns without touch,

And what does it become?

What are they that move

Through these rooms without even

The encumbrance of Shadows?

If you are one of them, I praise

The God of all gods, who is

Nothing and nowhere, a law,

Immutable proof. And if you are bound

By habit or will to be one of us

Again, I praise you are what waits

To break back into the world

Through me. (33)

I would describe this poem as extremely artistically visual. I think that Tracey K. Smith is describing the process of someone dying, in particular her dad. I think she is wondering what becomes of someone after they die: where they go, what they do. The first stanza I believe that she is describing someone leaving their body immediately after they die. She is describing them as no longer being part of their bodies and stepping out of their skin as a new being. In the second stanza I believe that she is questioning what people actually do after they die. She is wondering what becomes of them and if they are enclosed by walls. She is basically questioning what freedoms an individual has after they die. In the third to fourth stanzas I believe that she is solely asking for proof that her dad is always there with her after he died. She wants her questions to be answered about where he has gone and hopes that he is the “shadow or God” that is watching over her. She overall wants her father to be with her always even if he is not within his individual body.

Blog Post Life on Mars

"The Good Life" (64)

This poem looks at the value of money and the impact that it has on the ways we think and act. It is something that we will have and lose over time, so it is our job to decide what we want to do with our money. Tracy Smith compares it to a lover that we had and then it left (at least for some people). Our money is something that is really important to us, and we are responsible for determining how to make the most of our money. But when looking at this poem, we see how Smith writes that when she has money, there are certain things that she wants in order to feel like others: Roasted Chicken and red wine. The tricky thing about this situation is looking at what the money actually means to us. Is it something that we absolutely need? Is it something that we just inherently want? Or is it something that we want in order to fit in with other people? I think this last question is the most important to address. Money is not something that we inherently need, but in our society we do need it. Our money is the signal to others of our worth. This poem was called "The Good Life" and it reflects the way that some people look at money. We look at money as this all powerful object, but it is not. The idea behind money perpetuates its importance in our society. Money was created by man, it is not something that we have always needed. It is something that people use to assert their power because they have more of it, and therefore everyone wants to have money as well. That way, we are able to able to dream, like Tracy Smith, that we can be like other people when we have a little bit of money.

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"When we stop talking, we hear the soft sounds/ He makes in his sleep. Not quite barking. More like/ Learning to speak. As if he's in the middle of a scene/ Where he must stand before the great dog god/ Trying to account for his life" (Smith 61).

I love these lines because they take the concept of something so familiar and common to many of us- a dog barking in its sleep- and interprets it as otherworldly.  The mention of "the great dog god" is especially unique, and it paints a sort of comical yet profound image in the reader's head.  Something so normal usually goes unnoticed by someone, yet this poem explains it in a way that makes it much more important.  I also think the breaks in the lines, along with the punctuation, are purposeful and encourage the reader to pause at certain times.  The diction is simple and the lines are straightforward.

Blog Post #12 - Life on Mars

"Back before you existed to me, you were a theory. Now I know everything: the words you hate. Where you itch at night...I remember thanking him each time the session was done. But mostly what I see is a human hand reaching down to lift a pebble from my tongue." (Smith 22).

This excerpt was from "Savior Machine" by Tracy K. Smith, where she expresses her newfound insight of the psychiatrist she used to see; he is finally on the same playing field and not some superhuman who possesses a type of power over her. I chose this passage specifically for the last line, mostly because of its various interpretational routes. Overall, the gist of the poem is that Tracy Smith currently sees her previous therapist as someone who is as much as a human being as she is. He has faults too, as seen when she writes "the words you hate" and "where you itch at night." She is no longer a patient to him anymore, therefore a different relationship is established when the two meet up again. She still remembers the stereotypical roles each of them played: her as the patient who expresses and vents her emotions haphazardly, and him as the observer, watching and listening to her words carefully. Therefore, the last line can be interpreted as how she sees him as someone who helped her express her feelings in an ordered way, meaning he lets her thought process become clear and structured. The pebbles in her mouth can be representative of her struggling to get her words out. Alternatively, the pebble can be indicative of a medication that she was prescribed, and his job is to help wean her off of it, or assist her with coping and adjusting. I found it interesting that this line concluded her poem because it definitely left me off on a confusing note. I think that this poem definitely touched upon the perception of power between people, and how a certain position or title is often immediately paired with a higher status in an abstract hierarchy.

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IT & CO page 17

“We are a part of It. Not guests.

Is It us, or what contains us?

How can It be anything but an idea, Something teetering on the spine

Of the number i? It is elegant

But coy. It avoids the blunt ends

Of our fingers as we point. We

Have gone looking for It everywhere:

In Bibles and bandwidth, blooming

Like a wound from the ocean floor.

Still, It resists the matter of false vs. real.

Unconvinced by our zeal, It is un-

Appeasable. It is like some novels:

Vast and unreadable.”

In this poem Tracy uses varying techniques to elicit something imaginary that I thought was very interesting. At first, Tracy begins using a capital “I” when saying “It”, which elicits the question of what “It” is, she writes about the “number i” which is the imaginary number/unit, and she mentions the various searches that have taken place, “In Bibles and bandwidth.” At first I thought she was talking about the universe/solar system because I know this book was written about her father who worked on the Hubble Telescope. As the poem evolved I thought that it was more so about finding our meaning and our place within the universe, that I think could parallel Tracy’s attempt to find meaning without her father being alive.

The universe on it’s own is “vast and unreadable” as Tracy writes in similarity to books that we may read. Tracy shifts perspective between the real/conceivable and the imaginary/unbelievable. The poem, and the collection as a whole, dances around this idea of finding something solid and real to ground oneself in, yet realizing that a lot of the time that experience is unattainable.

The title “IT & CO” made me think of “It” and company, being purposefully ambiguous on Tracy’s behalf. It is the ambiguity that allows readers to alter the meaning of the poem. In poetry I enjoy when the poet is not decisive about their intentions or what they want the reader to walk away thinking/knowing. It is an ambiguous poem that allows each reader to shape their own meaning and connection. Ultimately, a piece that may have been written by Tracy about her father or the way he made her think, becomes a piece about being grounded and establishing connections that anyone can relate to in their own way.