“There is nothing that can’t become a poem”: The Work of Patricia Smith
Wednesday, July 10, 2024
by Barbara Egel
I couldn’t stop writing.
I wrote myself angled and tress-topped
I wrote myself hero, I wrote myself white,
Cherokee, cheerleader, distressed damsel in Alan Ladd’s arms,
I wrote myself winged, worshipped.
– “Related to the Buttercup, Blooms in Spring”
In this poem from her 2006 collection, Teahouse of the Almighty, Patricia Smith falls desperately in love. She…