THE WORD THAT comes to mind when considering American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time is gift. Edited by former U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, this anthology of poems from 50 living American poets addresses the nation with generosity. In her introduction, Smith describes American Journal as “an offering” for us to expand, renew, or establish our relationship with poetry and each other. She writes that she loves poems because they invite her to “sit still, listen deeply, and imagine putting [herself] in someone else’s unfamiliar shoes.”
American Journal presents 50 different takes on the American experience: a school field trip (“The Field Trip,” by Ellen Bryant Voigt); war (“Personal Effects,” by Solmaz Sharif); the shouldering of inequity on young, brilliant lives (“Mighty Pawns,” by Major Jackson); addiction (“My Brother at 3 AM,” by Natalie Diaz); work (“Minimum Wage,” by Matthew Dickman); language (“Music from Childhood,” by John Yau); and hope (“For the Last American Buffalo,” by Steve Scafidi).
Organized into five sections that draw on internal words and themes, the anthology expresses a collective voice that highlights each poem’s singularity. One section comprises a single poem, “38” by Layli Long Soldier, which recalls the execution of the Dakota 38 under President Abraham Lincoln. “38” reclaims suppressed memory, unravels myths of national progress, and—speaking as much to the present as to the past (“The previous sentence is circular, akin to so many aspects of history.”)—dispels any notion of American Journal as patriotic paean.
At the same time, praise is endemic to the volume. Our need for celebration intensifies in the midst of complicated realities. “‘N’em” by Jericho Brown honors the old folks and old ways, whose wisdom is our forgotten inheritance (“They fed / Families with change and wiped / Their kitchens clean.”). In a country of quotidian gun violence, “Proximities” by Lia Purpura understands life to be a paradoxical gift known only in absence and inverse (“Not-shot-at / and I never knew it.”).
American Journal is the result of Tracy K. Smith’s project to engage poetry in rural communities, from Alaska to South Carolina to Maine. The book is both product and producer of empathy-fostering conversations. Its title is from the poem “[American Journal],” by Robert Hayden, the first African American to serve as what became known as the U.S. Poet Laureate. In it, an alien visiting from outer space finds striking similarities and differences between inhabitants of the U.S. and his own people. At the end of the poem, the essence of American identity remains unnamed.
“Who are we?” is a question that has surfaced with urgency in our nation. In response, Smith brings us poetry, an embrace of our lives and gifts. That, perhaps, is all the answer we need.
Jeania Ree V. Moore is a writer, United Methodist deacon, and doctoral student in religious studies and African American studies at Yale University.
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