Poet Laureate of the United States Tracy K Smith Visits Juneau

• News Home
• More from News of the North

Thursday, August 30, 2018 at 4:23 AM

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Messenger
• Share on Messenger
• Share on Twitter
• Share on Whatsapp

Juneau, AK (KINY) - The Alaska State Museum hosted the Poet Laureate of the United States.

Tracy K Smith visited Juneau as a part of her project “American Conversations: Celebrating Poems in Rural Communities” where she read several poems from her book "Wade in the Water" and also the works of other poets from "American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time", which has 50 poems by 50 living poets. Topics covered include natural beauty, Americana rooted in biblical sources, and being a parent. For part of the presentation, she asked the audience to say what they pulled from a poem, encouraging interpretations of the work.

After the presentation, dozens visited with Smith thanking her for her visit to Juneau or asking for an autograph or photo. We sat down for a quick interview, first asking her to explain the importance of writing in today's world.
 
“I feel like as a ready, poetry is an alternative to our fast-paced, surface skimming, the language we live in, the quick instant reactions, the many ways that the language of advertising is pandering to our unconsidered appetites and opinions, I think that gives us a distorted view of our own importance. I like that poetry helps to recalibrate that.”

Contrary to the fast-paced nature of modern media, Smith tells us that poetry encourages readers to take their time and think.  

“I think poetry fosters a kind of curiosity and the world, as well as humility. It also is something that urges you to slow down and to look beneath the surface and to think and rethink and question and make associations and connections on your own.”

“Those are skills that I think are threatened.”

We also asked her what advice she might have for writers.

“I always heard from teachers and poets that to be a writer you have to be a reader and I really believe that. I feel like I learned from the other voices that I read. I get tools that I can lift out of other people's poems and say, ‘Oh yeah, I can use a question in a poem. I'm going to try that and see what it does with my own material.”

Smith admitted that poetry helps her understand the world and herself.

“I also think that it became helpful when I realized that I didn't have to write poems about the things I thought poems were supposed to be about, but that I could write about what was on my mind. I could write about the things that were part of my life, something that was ordinary, simple, even perhaps embarrassing.”

“A poem can help me understand why those things mattered and what they meant about who I was and what I might consider becoming.”

 

 

More from News of the North

• Last-minute Anan Wildlife Observatory permits available at the end of June

  Wrangell, Alaska (KINY) - Visitors will soon be able to submit requests for the last four daily permits to Anan Wildlife Observatory, which are meant to accommodate last-minute planning and need to be requested in person at the Wrangell Ranger District, up to one week in advance

• Alaska Delegation frustrated by interior’s delay of the Ambler Access Project

  Anchorage, Alaska (KINY) - U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (both R-Alaska) and U.S. Representative Mary Sattler Peltola (D-Alaska), today released the following joint statement after the Department of the Interior (DOI) announced an up to six-month delay for the finalization of the Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) and Record of Decision (ROD) for the proposed Ambler Access Project (AAP).

• Dozens evacuated from small cruise ship in Alaska after engine room fire

  Juneau, Alaska (AP) — A fire in the engine room of a small cruise ship in Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve prompted the evacuation of dozens of passengers and crew on Monday. No injuries were reported, and the fire was extinguished, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

• CCFR on scene on Fritz Cove Road fire

  Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - CCFR responded to a fire toward the end of Fritz Cove Road at 2:31 AM.

• Murkowski leads bill to invest in blue cconomy, spark innovations in coastal communities

  Anchorage, Alaska (KINY) - U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Representatives María Elvira Salazar (R-FL-27) and Chellie Pingree (D-ME-1) introduced the bipartisan, bicameral Ocean Regional Opportunity and Innovation Act (Ocean ROI Act), legislation that would require the Secretary of Commerce to establish a federal strategy for investing in the nation’s ocean-based economy with “Ocean Innovation Clusters” (ocean clusters).

• Water & Sewer Utility Rates To Increase July 1

  Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - CBJ wants to remind citizens that there will be a utility rate increase effective July 1. The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly, in August of 2019, approved increases to both the water and sewer utility rates. The 2% rate increase will go into effect July 1.

• Comments exceed 100 in effort to shape future of integrated forest management on the Tongass

  Ketchikan, Alaska (KINY) - A public outreach designed to compile as much local input as possible to shape the future of integrated forest management on the Tongass National Forest is proving to be successful and there is still plenty of time to comment.

• Sitka Salmon Derby comes to a close

  Sitka, Alaska (KINY) - Yesterday, saw the 68th Sitka Salmon Derby come to a close. News of the North has the scores

• Brett Gilbert sentenced for 2017 hatchet murder

  Fairbanks, Alaska (KINY) - Fairbanks Superior Court Judge Paul Lyle sentenced 55-year-old Brett Gilbert to 75 years in prison for the murder of Mark Mitchell on July 30, 2017. Gilbert was convicted by a jury of murder in the first degree earlier this year.

• A study to monitor the potentially imperiled Aleutian tern kicks off in Alaska

  Yakutat, Alaska (Alaska Beacon) - Researchers fear the uncommon bird may be in severe decline

• Juneau Symphony closes their 60th season with epic 'Showdowns'

  Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - Juneau Symphony's theme for their 60th season was 'Epic' - and their final performance for the season went above and beyond.

• United Fishermen of Alaska announces support for Senator Lisa Murkowski’s Fishing Industry Credit Enhancement Act

  Juneau, Alaska (KINY) - Late last week, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Angus King (I-Maine) introduced bipartisan legislation aimed at supporting rural fishing communities.