Wade in the Water

In the newest work by America's current Poet Laureate Smith (author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Life on Mars), the personal and political, historical and contemporary merge in a collection that not only addresses issues the United States is facing today—attitudes toward immigrants in "The United States Welcomes You" and water poisoned by corporate greed and indifference in "Watershed," for example—but also gives voice to enslaved people in the Civil War era. What in lesser hands could be jarring here becomes a lyric tapestry, weaving poems created from the actual writings of the enslaved together with highly personal and immediate works. This allows listeners to come to understand that seemingly disparate events and experiences are, in many ways, connected on a very human level. The poems themselves are artful in the best meaning of the word; this is a writer working at the height of her craft. That these poems are then read by Smith herself gives them an extra vibrancy, allowing listeners to hear the nuances of meter and stresses as the poet wishes us to hear them.