Just attended a Tracy K Smith reading

5/8/2023 it was simply lovely for contemporary poetry fans

Part of the AI fear — seems to be — how mechanized we have become

We don’t allow the moon to break in like we once did — with our 24/7 lights and work life we’ve overemphasized the Sun and Apollonian mechanisms

Great poets — IMO — remind us we are so much more than the crafted opinions of spin-doctors

Gates of Heaven
“... a practical theology my poems help me construct” Tracy K. Smith

Never trust a truth coming at us 
in full daylight, armored with spinning 
mirrors, claiming 

FEAR   GLORY    SUBMIT    BE-ERASED

Be your revolution from what the
silence, night, and the gods before gods
tell you, the quiet where your ancestors
dwell, where our ancestors dwell, drink
the dust spewed out by stars, be drunk
on the microbiome, blackholes, tides
quantum actions, the immense expanse
in all 4 directions

IN         OUT        MACRO      MICRO

Colonize yourself -- reject voices betting
on the complacent heart, lead from the front
lines of your own life, the marching Host behind 
you the sound of feet

STAMPING      ROARING    SHAKING      BREAKING

The gates of someone else’s heaven

We are the glitch and the substrate of glitch

Some links from the Tracy K Smith Zoom reading I just attended:

https://poets.org/poem/nude

https://poets.org/poem/single-womans-bedroom

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/145346/flores-woman

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147469/the-united-states-welcomes-you

We are less than our glitch

Much love,

Con/Jur/d, 5/8/2023