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Tracy K. Smith envisions a future world in her poem Sci-Fi. This world is a drastic departure from our current world and Tracy K. Smith utilizes drastic language to emphasize the changes her conjured world has experienced. However, these changes float around in the poems and we do not know if this world is a utopia, dystopia, or just another stop in the endless march of time. The first mentioned characteristic of this world is that “history, with its hard spine & dog-eared / Corners, will be replaced with nuance.” Even in this simple phrase there is embedded a two-sided coin. One side the erasure of “history, with its hard spine” can ease the burden of all past mistakes and provide a clean path to improvement. Instead nuance will instill a more sensitive perception of the world. However, the presence of history serves as a reminder of all our past mistakes and its erasure destroys any lessons history may have for us; I may not like the “E” I received on a spelling test but that “E” will always remind me to study for a quiz. In Tracy K. Smith’s depiction of this future world “for kicks, we'll dance for ourselves / Before mirrors studded with golden bulbs.” Once again this scene of dancing and “mirrors studded with golden bulbs” sounds joyous and indicates a world of wealth and plenty. However, the phrases “for ourselves” and the imagery of the mirror could also indicate a world filled with selfishness and materialism. The very words of the poem clash and mesh to form these two separate, yet both plausible meanings. Tracy K. Smith then expands this change beyond human society stating that “eons from even our own moon, we'll drift/ In the haze of space.” The imagery of us drifting with the moon “in the haze of space” indicates that humans are all part of a larger current of change. The changes we experience as humans and as a part of human society are a thread in the quilt on the universe. This larger current of change seemingly indicates that the world Tracy K. Smith envisions is just a product of change. This future society is a product of change “just like the dinosaurs gave way / To mounds and mounds of ice.” Even the extinction of entire species is just another stop in history. Life thrives and then disappears only to thrive again, breaking through a layer of ice to inherit a warm world. Thus, we are left to wonder if the world Tracy K. Smith constructs is a utopia, a dystopia, or just one possible future that is a product of natural change.

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"The earth is dry and they live Duende by Tracy K. Smith is inherently a cryptic poem. The poet utilizes vague terminology and broad concepts to add to the sense of mystery and build the suspense. All this suspense and mystery serves as a metaphor for an inexpressible life, and how each person forms a different path for themselves. The initial line of the poem is almost prophetic, almost biblical in its vast description in which “the earth is dry and they live wanting. / Each with a small reservoir.” The comparison of the universal being “dry” and the individual, the each having “a small reservoir” emphasizes the individual's need to fill their own world with meaning. The individual is given the ability to actively impact their world, carving out a place for themselves within the larger world, and all that individual has to do is impart their given gifts. Thus, every act is important as “each word is a wish, each phrase / A shape their bodies ache to fill.” The description of  “each word is a wish” demonstrates the impact an individual's even non-physical acts can define us and illuminate who we really are. What we do, what we say are building blocks for our future. As much as this forming of an individual path is specific to one person, it is also universal. If everyone makes their own impact the summation of individual acts has a universal effect and that is why it is “not just them. Not just / The ramshackle family, the tíos, / Primitos, not just the bailaor.” The distinguishment of involvement beyond “the ramshackle family” develops the pursuit of living life to fullest as a human endeavor, beyond the constructs of race or clan. However, all this philosophy and analysis that Tracy K. Smith musters is not enough “for what not even language / Moves quickly enough to name. / If I call it pain, and try to touch it / With my hands, my own life, / It lies still and the music thins.” Here there is an admission that all the metaphors, personification, and imagery cannot adequately describe the process of living and growing. “Not even language,” as a powerful tool of communication and understanding can truly describe someone’s life or the inner emotions they feel throughout their life and life with all its attributes “moves quickly enough to name.” Thus Duende serves as a hand reaching out in the dark, muscles and tendons flexing to finding something firm to grasp on, but instead a realization emerges that whatever is grasped will only tell half a story.

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Tracy K. Smith was born on April 16, 1972 in Massachusetts. She had four other siblings and she was the youngest of all her siblings. While she was born in Massachusetts, she grew up in California as her family located there due to her father’s work, which has inspired some of her works.

Tracy K. Smith was educated at Harvard University, earning a BA at that institution. She would continue her education at Columbia University, there gaining her MFA in creative writing. She would then hold the Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University for approximately two years.

Tracy K. Smith published her first poetry collection, The Body’s Question, in 2003. She has written three more poetry collections, the last one being Wade in the Water in 2018. Her third poetry collection Life on Mars earned her the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for poetry. This was just the latest in her long line of literary awards as each of her three initial poetry collections had earned at least one literary award. In 2015 Tracy K Smith diversified from poetry and wrote her first memoir entitled Ordinary Light: A Memoir.

Her work has brought her significant respect and honors. In 2014 she earned the Academy of American Poets Fellowship. She was honored even further when in 2017 she was named the poet laureate of the United States. This honor was renewed in 2018 and she is current serving her second term.

Tracy K. Smith has not only written poetry but also taught the art at a number of institutions. She has taught at the City University of New York, the University of Pittsburgh, and her alma mater Columbia University. Her latest destination has been Princeton University where she leads the writing department since 2015.

Bibliography:
1. “Tracy K. Smith.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/tracy-k-smith.
2. Poets.org, Academy of American Poets, poets.org/poet/tracy-k-smith.

3. Zelazko, Alicja. “Tracy K. Smith.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 12 Apr. 2019, www.britannica.com/biography/Tracy-K-Smith.

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Article 1: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/tracy-k-smiths-poetry-of-desire

Article 2: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/business/tracy-k-smith-poet-laureate.html

Interview: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/video/77371/life-on-mars-space-exploration-through-poetry

Declaration: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147468/declaration-5b5a286052461

My G-d its Full of Stars:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55519/my-god-its-full-of-stars

Duende:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55522/duende