April is National Poetry Month! If you want to celebrate and aren’t sure where to start, consider Tracy K. Smith’s Life on Mars. Here are three reasons why:
- This book won a Pulitzer Prize.
- The cover art is an awesome photo of space.
- My friend Deandra recommends this book.
The themes of Life on Mars are wide-ranging. Existence, love, death, the future, our ephemeral nature – it’s all here, with a cosmos-minded sci-fi flavor. You’ll find a lot of references to the stars, as well as allusions to 2001: A Space Odyssey and Ziggy Stardust himself, David Bowie. It’s worth noting that Smith’s father was engineer on the Hubble telescope project. He’s in the book both by name and in spirit. The poems that made me tear up the most include him, especially “The Speed of Belief.” Bowie is a close second. As Smith writes, knowing he is out in the universe gives us the guts to “SHINE SHINE SHINE SHINE SHINE.” 
In terms of technical writing, I see Smith as virtuoso. She reminds me of Robert Pinsky in she elevates the mundane to the profound with a few pen strokes. She plays with words, sounds, and ideas with such ease it’s like watching a trapeze artist fly through the air or a point guard throwing a no-look pass. Several times I laughed out loud in appreciation, or reread sections out loud again and again for the music of it.
While a lot of people can turn a phrase or write about death and sex (the two favorites of pretty much every poet), I appreciate the profundity of her insight. She writes with both humility and authority.
To steal from my own CBR review of poet Sarah Kay’s book (also recommended by the aforementioned Deandra): If you love poetry, buy this book. If you want to love poetry, buy this book.