Beautiful, varied, tragic, lovely.

This book is deceptively slim, and small. The poems, the poets within, the scope of what they write & offer, their range is wide and broad, beautiful. Our nation's Black woman Poet Laureate (easy to take for granted, but there she is, thank God) has curated a profound testimony to the depth and expanse of the full capabilities of what it means to be a relevant poet now. These poems even manage to somehow enlarge the notion of now in ways that are unexpected and beautiful.

That was really a quite spectacular collection of poems. They weren't all for me, but I checked the ones that I particularly enjoyed (which were well over half), and now I have a slew of new-to-me poets to check out.

The world I return to when the poem is over seems fuller and more comprehensible as a result. - Tracy K. Smith Celebration is in order for this anthology. American Journal is an anthology of 50 poems that comment on the experience of living in the United States, coming out during a very tumultuous time. Our Virgil in this exploration of US living is none other than the incredible Tracy K. Smith, current US Poet Laureate and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her collection Life on Mars. An inspiri...

So glad I stumbled upon this tiny volume at the library. Mighty Pawns by Major Jackson brought me to tears.

Beautifully curated! This was a second reading for me. It now sits on my desk for easy access when I just need to read something wonderful.

It’s The Poet Laureate of the United States so you know the collection is gonna be good. I’d read a number of these before but my favorites from this collection were Reverse Suicide (by Matt Rasmussen), Downhearted (by Ada Limón), The Long Deployment (by Jehanne Dubrow), We Lived Happily During the War (by Ilya Kaminsky), and For the Last American Buffalo (by Steve Scafidi). With this many poets in one book there is bound to be something to appeal to everyone.

Story of Girls (Tina Chang)Years ago, my brothers took turns holding down a girl in a room. / They weren't doing anything to her but they were laughing and / sometimes it's the laughing that does enough. They held the girl down / for an hour and she was crying, her mouth stuffed with a small red cloth. / Their laughing matched her crying in the same pitch. That marriage / of sound was an error and the error kept repeating itself. / There were threats of putting her in the closet or in the baseme...

American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time was an excellent collection of poems addressing a variety of topics. I discovered a lot of new poets whose work I really resonated with, which was lovely.

I confess I am not a great reader of poetry. My favourite poet is John Keats, and while I believe he is a wonderful poet and I also love reading his marvellous letters, I'm aware that my selection is based off of a limited pool of contestants.I am also not a great reader of American poetry. But this book was a gift, and I am well behind my reading challenge for the year. That was the premise for my initially picking up this collection.Then two unrelated things happened that made reading this mor...

This little anthology sort of took my breath away. Some of the poets were names I knew but most were new to me. One poem that really stood out for me was In Defense of Small Towns by Oliver de la Paz. Written in 2 line stanzas, it is a longish poem and starts out with the narrator hating life in the small town of his past but then each stanza carefully describes a past memory so that you see the evolution of his thoughts until finally the ending describes how he wants to take his son back there

This is a beautiful collection of heartrending poetry that reflects the state of our country. Though some of the poems are gritty, and shattering, there is still beauty within. It's gracefully edited by the wonderful Tracy K. Smith, and it definitely lingers and makes you want to practice writing poetry through emulation. Reminiscent of the work of Clifton, Espada and both Patricia Smith and Tracy K. Smith herself, it is for anyone who loves good writing.

Tracy K. Smith has curated a wonderful collection of poetry. Those unfamiliar w/ contemporary poetry would do well to sample this collection. Some of my favorite poets and poems are in these pages: Eve Ewing, Terrance Hayes, Danez Smith, Ilya Kaminsky, to name a few.

American Journal: Fifty Poems for Our Time, edited by Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, is a slim book that speaks to the wide breadth of American Experience. This collection of 50 stunning poems from a wide range of voices creates what Smith calls a "loving yet critical portrait of a nation in progress." The poems are divided into five thematic sections and they tend towards narrative and the spoken voice, but that’s all the better for Smith’s project of America telling the story of itself today. P...

It's good to know librarians--one of my acquaintance brought an advance reader's copy of this book back from the 2018 ALA conference for me.It's a nice solid collection of poems. Unsurprisingly, selected as they were by our current US Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith, they are, as the subtitle suggests, well picked for today. The introduction by Smith is amazing and by itself well worth the price of the volume.

For anyone wanting to try contemporary poetry (poetry written by poets living today), this is an excellent collection of numerous poems by 50 different poets and in many different styles. Do many poems to teach and share in a classroom, including using any one of the five sections as a mentor text for how to collect poems.

Tracy K Smith is the current Poet Laureate of the United States and one of those few authors who could write a cereal box and I would read it. While not her writing, Smith has selected fifty distinct poems that she says are must reads and represent a cross section of American life. The collection includes works by some of my favorites Joy Harjo and Natalie Tretheway as well as a moving signature piece by Layli Long Soldier. Smith notes that these poems bring her closer to each author, which may

A collection that clearly proves poetry has a place in today's world.

loved it, a wonderful collection

This slim volume is a wonderful collection of poems from a diverse collection of vibrant poets working and writing in the USA today. The poems are well balanced with men and women, young and old, black, white, Latinx, Asian, and Native writers all represented. And of course, each poem touches upon an aspect of living in the US, such as: a memory of childhood, an everyday observation while walking through town, a traumatic experience, the thrill of new love, the touch of a stranger in a darkened