Goldenrod: Poems
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY NPR
“To read Maggie Smith is to embrace the achingly precious beauty of the present moment.” —Time
“A captivating collection from a wise, accessible poet.” —People
From the award-winning poet and bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Keep Moving, and Good Bones, a stunning poetry collection that celebrates the beauty and messiness of life.
With her breakout bestseller Keep Moving, Maggie Smith captured the nation with her “meditations on kindness and hope” (NPR). Now, with Goldenrod, the award-winning poet returns with a powerful collection of poems that look at parenthood, solitude, love, and memory. Pulling objects from everyday life—a hallway mirror, a rock found in her son’s pocket, a field of goldenrods at the side of the road—she reveals the magic of the present moment. Only Maggie Smith could turn an autocorrect mistake into a line of poetry, musing that her phone “doesn’t observe / the high holidays, autocorrecting / shana tova to shaman tobacco, / Rosh Hashanah to rose has hands.”
Slate called Smith’s “superpower as a writer” her “ability to find the perfect concrete metaphor for inchoate human emotions and explore it with empathy and honesty.” The poems in Goldenrod celebrate the contours of daily life, explore and delight in the space between thought and experience, and remind us that we decide what is beautiful.
“To read Maggie Smith is to embrace the achingly precious beauty of the present moment.” —Time
“A captivating collection from a wise, accessible poet.” —People
From the award-winning poet and bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Keep Moving, and Good Bones, a stunning poetry collection that celebrates the beauty and messiness of life.
With her breakout bestseller Keep Moving, Maggie Smith captured the nation with her “meditations on kindness and hope” (NPR). Now, with Goldenrod, the award-winning poet returns with a powerful collection of poems that look at parenthood, solitude, love, and memory. Pulling objects from everyday life—a hallway mirror, a rock found in her son’s pocket, a field of goldenrods at the side of the road—she reveals the magic of the present moment. Only Maggie Smith could turn an autocorrect mistake into a line of poetry, musing that her phone “doesn’t observe / the high holidays, autocorrecting / shana tova to shaman tobacco, / Rosh Hashanah to rose has hands.”
Slate called Smith’s “superpower as a writer” her “ability to find the perfect concrete metaphor for inchoate human emotions and explore it with empathy and honesty.” The poems in Goldenrod celebrate the contours of daily life, explore and delight in the space between thought and experience, and remind us that we decide what is beautiful.
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Community Reviews
3.5 stars rounded up
these poems are very accessible. rather short, without too many flowery moves or obscure ideas. she pretty much says what she means.
this is sometimes profound and sometimes bland.
i enjoyed a lot of her poems about her children, especially. i like how much nature/sky/bird/flower imagery plays a role in her poems.
i shied away from her poems about school shootings and lockdown at first. not sure why, but i always have this reaction to any poem that is so clearly written recently about current events. i canât explain it, itâs just freaky. maybe because theyâre not really what i seek from poetry? which is usually something more timeless? but i forced myself to reread some of those and i think they could definitely help voice what some others feel, and maybe one day i can enjoy them more.
i canât say every poem was a banger, but almost every single one had something to grab my attention at least a little (a line, a phrase, an idea) and some had many. not 5 stars because no poem stole my breath away or made me feel sick, but honestly i can recommend this book, especially if you donât read a ton of poetry. maybe youâll find something for you here.
these poems are very accessible. rather short, without too many flowery moves or obscure ideas. she pretty much says what she means.
this is sometimes profound and sometimes bland.
i enjoyed a lot of her poems about her children, especially. i like how much nature/sky/bird/flower imagery plays a role in her poems.
i shied away from her poems about school shootings and lockdown at first. not sure why, but i always have this reaction to any poem that is so clearly written recently about current events. i canât explain it, itâs just freaky. maybe because theyâre not really what i seek from poetry? which is usually something more timeless? but i forced myself to reread some of those and i think they could definitely help voice what some others feel, and maybe one day i can enjoy them more.
i canât say every poem was a banger, but almost every single one had something to grab my attention at least a little (a line, a phrase, an idea) and some had many. not 5 stars because no poem stole my breath away or made me feel sick, but honestly i can recommend this book, especially if you donât read a ton of poetry. maybe youâll find something for you here.
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