Introduction to Honors Contract

I’ve chosen to read a collection of poems by Tracy K. Smith and other authors on behalf of gaining inspiration to compose poems of my own. The ways in which I normally write poems is by ending each stanza with a rhyme. I would say that my technique in writing poetry is to always be lyrical and religious-based, and also including the theme of love. The form in which Smith writes her poetry in the book is similar to how I would normally write my poems. She includes a lot of religious aspects to what an audience may relate to. This book that I was assigned to read by Professor Talbird has influenced me to create more religious-like poetry. I’ve noticed that comparing the various poems I’ve chosen to read found on Poetry Foundation all have similar themes pertaining to religion, self-awareness in race, and possibly culture. There is also a theme of being one with the universe and synchronizing one’s thoughts with God’s “pure force” (Smith, pp. 3) in the author’s life.

What I mean by this is that Smith produces poetry that relates to her strong belief and ideologies in faith, and what the world is really like from birds-eye view, seeing things away from her own perspectives and personal experiences, and having an audience relate to what she conveys, but more in depth and on a deeper and vulnerable level. Smith mentions “that we are blessed, letting go, letting someone, anyone, drag open the drapes and heave us back into our blinding, bright lives.” (Smith pp. 27). She introduces the concept of letting go, and of course, letting God take care of the rest. Growing up, that saying was always told to me repeatedly for reassurance of being able to let go of all the worries in the world and being content within my own mind. The ability to let all of your past complications in life go and being able to start anew. Smith’s quote in one of her poems titled “The Speed of Belief” written as memoriam to Floyd William Smith, reminds me of a similar concept that I included in the very first poem I assembled. My poem concluded with avoiding the habit of having the world and nature around us, compromising our daily thoughts and beliefs of faith, vulnerability and personal life struggles. “Longing for nature’s wrath to condensate such quenching of thirst that this Earth needs” (“Dead to the Bone”; quoted from my poem.). This quote that I introduced exemplifies the ways in which man (all human beings) obliterates the idea of wanting to move on from the past.

As an ideological response going against what Smith brings across for man to let go and become more self-aware, my perspective through the poems I’ve read and also the ones I’ve written on my own links back to Smith’s idea of letting a higher being taking care of all of the  internal and external issues that everyone in life may face. Altogether, with how I’ve interpreted Smith’s collection of poems, and the ones I’ve been inspired to write based upon the poems I’ve read and written (all conveying a similar theme of faith), her poetry along with mines, gives the reader more of a clearer idea as to how us as individuals have the inability to control our thoughts, emotions and actions sometimes, despite being heavily induced by our surroundings and beliefs. Smith’s perspective conveyed to an audience is to be more aware and one with the universe: the ability to converse and confront our biggest setbacks in life in order to move forward. The idea continued by her ideology on behalf of my point of view is that people on a daily basis find it much more difficult to confront their issues upfront. People are constantly worried about what others do, due to lack of self-awareness and incapability to deal with themselves, so, as a result, they are unable to let God fix their problems. I came to a conclusion that we become so often caught up in a whirlwind where the higher being some of supposedly have faith in, is unable to carry out his duties of repairing our internal scars because we are stuck in the past. This brings me to why I have been inspired to create a collection of poems in response to Tracy K. Smith’s ideas of common life interactions, amongst people and daily encounters of life altering events.