# data[].attributes.body
Smith’s poem “Sci-Fi” makes the future feel safe and very technologically advanced. The speaker associates “clean lines pointing forward” (2) with innovation and advancement. The future through the eyes of the speaker is a linear advancement in technology and history, and will continue to advance for ages to come. Though there is much change in the world envisioned by the speaker, “women will still be women” (7). The speaker describes a world similar to the one in Wall-E, where humans live far from the Earth and rely on technology heavily. Even through extreme change in the future, some things will always remain the same across time. This provides a sense of safety within the changes that come with time. The speaker claims in the future people will “dance for [themselves]” (11). This offers a sense of freedom from society and living up to the expectations of others. The speaker implies a future in which people live for themselves, rather than to fulfill societal expectations. There is a sort of comfort in knowing that one’s life is their own, and there is freedom to do whatever makes them happy, including dancing to oneself in the mirror. The speaker describes people in the future as floating “weightless, unhinged” (18). This shows parallelism between floating free from responsibilities and floating in space away from the earth. It implies that responsibilities in the future do not hold people down, and instead they can be happy and free in their lives. There is a safe comfort in finding happiness and freedom, as it’s something everyone searches for in their lives.

# data[].attributes.body
Smith’s “The Good Life” reflects on days of past when money did not matter. The speaker recalled fondly “the years [she] lived on coffee and bread” (5). She was struggling and could not afford luxuries most days, and though she has moved on from the hard times, she remains partial to her past when she did not have money. Smith likens money to a “mysterious lover,” something to wonder about for years without money (2). The mystery behind money exists when one does not have it, much like the lover that disappears without a trace. The speaker used to wonder what it would be like to have enough money to support herself, as one would wonder about a mysterious lover. The speaker recalled her trips to work as being similar to “a woman journeying for water from a village without a well” (7-8). Relating these very different trips to each other showed the lack of access to basic necessities that the speaker once faced. Still, she thinks of this time as the good old days, and fondly remembers the simplicity of these trips to work. The speaker related her financial status to food, remembering her indulgent nights of “roast chicken and red wine” (10). Food is obviously very important to the speaker, and nights when she could treat herself were some of her fondest memories. Money was hard to come by, but no matter what, the speaker was able to be happy and at peace. She is able to look back on times of struggle and remember the simple and good times she had back then.

# data[].attributes.body
me reading

# data[].attributes.body
Tracy K. Smith was born in 1972 in Falmouth, Massachusetts and grew up in California. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and her Master’s Columbia University, and held the Stegner Fellowship at Stanford University from 1997 to 1999. Since 2003, Smith has published four poetry books and a memoir. Her 2011 poetry book Life on Mars won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and her 2007 book Duende won the James Laughlin Award and the Essence Literary Award. Smith’s most recent book, Wade in the Water, was published in 2018 and won the Ainsfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry. Smith was the recipient of the Academy of the American Poets Fellowship in 2014. In 2017, Smith was named the 22nd U.S Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress. She is currently serving a second term as Poet Laureate. Smith has been a professor at Princeton University since the early 2000s, and is now the director of Princeton University’s creative writing program. She hosts a poetry podcast called “The Slowdown” which is produced by the Library of Congress and the Poetry Foundation.

# data[].attributes.body
https://poets.org/poet/tracy-k-smith

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/tracy-k-smith

https://arts.princeton.edu/people/profiles/tksmith/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tracy-K-Smith

# data[].attributes.headline
Tracy K Smith Reading "Wade in the Water"

# data[].attributes.subject
Tracy K Smith Reading "Wade in the Water"

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0znrveDbNI

# data[].attributes.headline
U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith explains value of poetry in consumerist society at Penn

# data[].attributes.subject
U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith explains value of poetry in consumerist society at Penn

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.thedp.com/article/2019/03/poet-laureate-tracy-smith-philomathean-society-penn

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55520/dont-you-wonder-sometimes

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/tracy-k-smiths-poetry-of-desire

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55516/sci-fi

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/55518/the-universe-as-primal-scream