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Above Ground
A remarkable poetry collection with "inextinguishable generosity and abundant wisdom" (Monica Youn) from Clint Smith, the #1 New York Times bestselling and National Book Critics Circle award-winning author of How the Word Is Passed .
Clint Smith’s vibrant and compelling new collection traverses the vast emotional terrain of fatherhood, and explores how becoming a parent has recalibrated his sense of the world. There are poems that interrogate the ways our lives are shaped by both personal lineages and historical institutions. There are poems that revel in the wonder of discovering the world anew through the eyes of your children, as they discover it for the first time. There are poems that meditate on what it means to raise a family in a world filled with constant social and political tumult. Above Ground wrestles with how we hold wonder and despair in the same hands, how we carry intimate moments of joy and a collective sense of mourning in the same body. Smith’s lyrical, narrative poems bring the reader on a journey not only through the early years of his children’s lives, but through the changing world in which they are growing up—through the changing world of which we are all a part.
Above Ground is a breathtaking collection that follows Smith's first award-winning book of poetry, Counting Descent .
Clint Smith’s vibrant and compelling new collection traverses the vast emotional terrain of fatherhood, and explores how becoming a parent has recalibrated his sense of the world. There are poems that interrogate the ways our lives are shaped by both personal lineages and historical institutions. There are poems that revel in the wonder of discovering the world anew through the eyes of your children, as they discover it for the first time. There are poems that meditate on what it means to raise a family in a world filled with constant social and political tumult. Above Ground wrestles with how we hold wonder and despair in the same hands, how we carry intimate moments of joy and a collective sense of mourning in the same body. Smith’s lyrical, narrative poems bring the reader on a journey not only through the early years of his children’s lives, but through the changing world in which they are growing up—through the changing world of which we are all a part.
Above Ground is a breathtaking collection that follows Smith's first award-winning book of poetry, Counting Descent .
128 pages, Hardcover
First published March 28, 2023
About the author
Clint Smith
8 books1,661 followersClint Smith is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Hillman Prize for Book Journalism, the Stowe Prize and selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2021. He is also the author of the poetry collection Counting Descent, which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award. His is a staff writer at The Atlantic.
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April 1, 2023
‘I dream / of his dreams and how possible I want them all to be.’
Parenthood is a wild, wonderful, often frustrating but usually fulfilling part of life. You are charged with a human life, first helpless and pure, which can be a daunting task. Looking at the world around you and the amalgamation of daily headlines full of terror, trauma and tragedy, the care and keeping of a child you hope to usher into the world with grace and understanding seems especially frightening, not to mention the existential questions about having brought someone into this world seemingly so full of sorrow. This is precisely what Clint Smith captures so harrowingly true in his new poetry collection Above Ground, juxtaposing the tenderness and trials of parenthood with the chaos of the world around us. Opening with adorable epigraphs from his two children about wanting to be the sun or a ladybug, we move through gorgeously poetic expressions of the thankfulness for the sweet ‘ moments that I know I’ll miss / when they are gone,’ with family legacy and tradition, the happy and sad moments, all melting your heart without ever becoming saccharine and still feeling the weight of the world closing in around you. Here in his second collection, and following his non-fiction work in How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, Smith reads as a confident poet with an acute sense of social struggles both historical and current and presents—almost as if responding to a child’s questions about where do we come from and what will become of us—and delivers an image of modern parenthood that many will recognize and with which anyone can empathize.
‘We spend lifetimes looking at history to find
the most extraordinary things, when sometimes
they are right in front of us.’
Everyone hears about how much it changes you, your prioritizes, your thoughts and worries, and all the other cliches parents talk about and before it happens to you its easy to dismiss that. But if it you do become a parent, you realize that these things are often true, but usually in a way that seeps into you and seems ineffable. Luckily we have poetry, a wonderful way to still definite the shape these elusive feelings and there are so many moments here where I thought “yes, Clint Smith, wow, yes thats it exactly. I love his poem about discussing poetry with his child, telling them poetry is in them and ‘searching for something to tell you / that you are what you have always been to me.’ There were many moments here where I’d smile and nod, knowing all too well what he is saying. Like this one:
Ode to Those First Fifteen Minutes After the Kids Are Finally Asleep
Praise the couch that welcomes you back into its embrace
as it does every night around this time. Praise the loose
cereal that crunches beneath your weight, the whole-grain
golden dust that now shimmers on the backside of your pants.
Praise the cushion, the one in the middle that sinks like a lifeboat
leaking air, and the ottoman covered in crayon stains that you
have now accepted as aesthetic. Praise your knees, and the evening
respite they receive from a day of choo-choo-training along the carpet
with two eager passengers in tow. Praise the silence, oh the silence,
how it washes over you like a warm bedsheet. Praise the walls
for the way they stand there and don't ask for anything.
Praise the seduction of slumber that tiptoes across your eyelids,
the way it tempts you to curl up right there and drift away
even though it's only 7:30 p.m. Praise the phone you scroll through
without even realizing that you're scrolling, praise the video
you scroll past of the man teaching his dog how to dance merengue,
praise the way it makes you laugh the way someone laughs
when they are so tired they don't know if they will ever stand
up again. Praise the toys scattered across the floor, and the way you
wonder if it might be okay to just leave them there for now,
since you know tomorrow they will end up there again.
Above Ground presents modern parenthood in such gloriously accurate and probing ways, keeping one eye on the kids and another on the horizon for the dangers lurking everywhere. The opening poem, All at Once, represents this so well, sending us through a spiral of threats (war, climate change, funerals, fires) an other news with moments like ‘a child takes their first steps and tumbles into a father’s arm.’ It is a reminder of what we face in daily life, the good and the bad, pondering how ‘the river that gives us water to drink is the same one that might wash us away.’ Which is what works so well in this collection, how poems of parenting like zoom preschool, accepting a leaf as a precious gift because it looks ‘like a star’, childhood fascinations with dinosaurs or space, or going to the beach can juxtaposed on the page with poems like The New York Times Reports That 200 Civilians Have Just Been Killed by U.S. Military Air Strikes, or poems on the lasting trauma of slavery.
‘The soft hum of history spins
On its tilted axis. A cavalcade of ghost ships
Wash their hands of all they carried.’
The past is always still lingering in the present here, with family legacy always nearby. They appear when least expected too. A conversation about the ossicones on the head of a giraffe, his child’s favorite animal for the day and that they ‘don’t do much of anything but exist / as an heirloom passed down from ancestors’ brings us to all ponder all ‘the things that continue to make us / who we are long after / they have served our purpose.’ Poems like Roots explores seeing a grandfather in the mannerisms of a child, or Across Generations explores hoping to end generational trauma, ‘of men attempting / to unlearn the anger of their father’s / tongues, the heat in their hands.’ Family is presented as the whole spectrum of ancestors and future generations:
‘When I look at you, it’s like I am seeing everything
that came before, all the people I love
who once lived but who are no longer living,
all of the history that has brought you here to me.’
The movement of history is constantly felt in Smith’s poetry, with the legacy of slavery, or even more recent struggles and dangers to Black lives, with Colin Kaepernick making an appearance in a poem. There is the movement of people, by slave ship, by diaspora, and even a poem on Pangea where the stanzas look like the plates moving away from each other (Smith occasionally uses inventive forms, like the Pangea poem or a poem about a Black boy executed in the electric chair written to form the shape of a chair). Though this collection is not all gloom and trauma, and is, ultimately, hopeful. The connections of the past are also shown in the connection he feels with his children, their dreams his dreams, their pains and fears also his:
‘You, little one, are not attached to my body,
you are neither a limb nor a slice of skin,
but you are part of me in ways I am still
discovering, and when you are hurt, I feel
your distress spread through every cell in me.
I experience your wounds as if they were my own’
While this collection is from Clint Smith’s perspective and centers fatherhood for the most part, he does not erase or downplay his wife’s importance, which was quite lovely to see. I especially liked the poem Gold Stars where he discusses how ‘it’s not that I don’t want people to tell me // I’m doing a good job it's just that I’m praised for the sorts / of things no one ever thanks my wife for.’ Which is a real thing for sure. There was a few years where I was a single parent of a young child, which is a lot of living constantly in survival mode especially when you don’t have much disposable income and are working multiple jobs. But I noticed this often, all the smiles and praise to just be a dad out with a young girl doing normal things or having fun, as if it was some success story to not be a shitty dad while single mothers, on the other hand, get intense scrutiny, criticism and scorn from society at every turn. It made me start to notice things even in friends that really bothered me, like when a man says they are ‘on babysitter duty’ when its literally just watching the kids like a dad should do. Or how often divorced dads are the “fun” parent while the mom takes the bulk of the work. Dr. Kate Manne's essay collection Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women has a really insightful chapter on this and the way women’s domestic labor is often invisible to society despite higher demands on it. I’m glad Clint Smith addresses this because the inequity around parenting is staggering.
Above Ground is a really lovely collection that straddles the personal with a larger scope of society and history. Clint Smith writes in very straightforward but affecting prose that navigates parenthood is such a charming and familiar way, steering the reader through the tumultuousness of society and struggles before nestling us down into bed, his words like a lullaby helping us feel soft and warm in the tenderness of his poetry. I’ll leave you with one of the best poems I’ve read so far this year.
5/5
What People Say
“We Have Made It Through Worse Before”
all I hear is the wind slapping against the gravestones
of those who did not make it, those who did not
survive to see the confetti fall from the sky, those who
did not live to watch the parade roll down the street.
I have grown accustomed to a lifetime of aphorisms
meant to assuage my fears, pithy sayings meant to
convey that everything ends up fine in the end. There is no
solace in rearranging language to make a different word
tell the same lie. Sometimes the moral arc of the universe
does not bend in a direction that will comfort us.
Sometimes it bends in ways we don’t expect & there are
people who fall off in the process. Please, dear reader,
do not say I am hopeless, I believe there is a better future
to fight for, I simply accept the possibility that I may not
live to see it. I have grown weary of telling myself lies
that I might one day begin to believe. We are not all left
standing after the war has ended. Some of us have
become ghosts by the time the dust has settled.
Parenthood is a wild, wonderful, often frustrating but usually fulfilling part of life. You are charged with a human life, first helpless and pure, which can be a daunting task. Looking at the world around you and the amalgamation of daily headlines full of terror, trauma and tragedy, the care and keeping of a child you hope to usher into the world with grace and understanding seems especially frightening, not to mention the existential questions about having brought someone into this world seemingly so full of sorrow. This is precisely what Clint Smith captures so harrowingly true in his new poetry collection Above Ground, juxtaposing the tenderness and trials of parenthood with the chaos of the world around us. Opening with adorable epigraphs from his two children about wanting to be the sun or a ladybug, we move through gorgeously poetic expressions of the thankfulness for the sweet ‘ moments that I know I’ll miss / when they are gone,’ with family legacy and tradition, the happy and sad moments, all melting your heart without ever becoming saccharine and still feeling the weight of the world closing in around you. Here in his second collection, and following his non-fiction work in How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America, Smith reads as a confident poet with an acute sense of social struggles both historical and current and presents—almost as if responding to a child’s questions about where do we come from and what will become of us—and delivers an image of modern parenthood that many will recognize and with which anyone can empathize.
‘We spend lifetimes looking at history to find
the most extraordinary things, when sometimes
they are right in front of us.’
Everyone hears about how much it changes you, your prioritizes, your thoughts and worries, and all the other cliches parents talk about and before it happens to you its easy to dismiss that. But if it you do become a parent, you realize that these things are often true, but usually in a way that seeps into you and seems ineffable. Luckily we have poetry, a wonderful way to still definite the shape these elusive feelings and there are so many moments here where I thought “yes, Clint Smith, wow, yes thats it exactly. I love his poem about discussing poetry with his child, telling them poetry is in them and ‘searching for something to tell you / that you are what you have always been to me.’ There were many moments here where I’d smile and nod, knowing all too well what he is saying. Like this one:
Ode to Those First Fifteen Minutes After the Kids Are Finally Asleep
Praise the couch that welcomes you back into its embrace
as it does every night around this time. Praise the loose
cereal that crunches beneath your weight, the whole-grain
golden dust that now shimmers on the backside of your pants.
Praise the cushion, the one in the middle that sinks like a lifeboat
leaking air, and the ottoman covered in crayon stains that you
have now accepted as aesthetic. Praise your knees, and the evening
respite they receive from a day of choo-choo-training along the carpet
with two eager passengers in tow. Praise the silence, oh the silence,
how it washes over you like a warm bedsheet. Praise the walls
for the way they stand there and don't ask for anything.
Praise the seduction of slumber that tiptoes across your eyelids,
the way it tempts you to curl up right there and drift away
even though it's only 7:30 p.m. Praise the phone you scroll through
without even realizing that you're scrolling, praise the video
you scroll past of the man teaching his dog how to dance merengue,
praise the way it makes you laugh the way someone laughs
when they are so tired they don't know if they will ever stand
up again. Praise the toys scattered across the floor, and the way you
wonder if it might be okay to just leave them there for now,
since you know tomorrow they will end up there again.
Above Ground presents modern parenthood in such gloriously accurate and probing ways, keeping one eye on the kids and another on the horizon for the dangers lurking everywhere. The opening poem, All at Once, represents this so well, sending us through a spiral of threats (war, climate change, funerals, fires) an other news with moments like ‘a child takes their first steps and tumbles into a father’s arm.’ It is a reminder of what we face in daily life, the good and the bad, pondering how ‘the river that gives us water to drink is the same one that might wash us away.’ Which is what works so well in this collection, how poems of parenting like zoom preschool, accepting a leaf as a precious gift because it looks ‘like a star’, childhood fascinations with dinosaurs or space, or going to the beach can juxtaposed on the page with poems like The New York Times Reports That 200 Civilians Have Just Been Killed by U.S. Military Air Strikes, or poems on the lasting trauma of slavery.
‘The soft hum of history spins
On its tilted axis. A cavalcade of ghost ships
Wash their hands of all they carried.’
The past is always still lingering in the present here, with family legacy always nearby. They appear when least expected too. A conversation about the ossicones on the head of a giraffe, his child’s favorite animal for the day and that they ‘don’t do much of anything but exist / as an heirloom passed down from ancestors’ brings us to all ponder all ‘the things that continue to make us / who we are long after / they have served our purpose.’ Poems like Roots explores seeing a grandfather in the mannerisms of a child, or Across Generations explores hoping to end generational trauma, ‘of men attempting / to unlearn the anger of their father’s / tongues, the heat in their hands.’ Family is presented as the whole spectrum of ancestors and future generations:
‘When I look at you, it’s like I am seeing everything
that came before, all the people I love
who once lived but who are no longer living,
all of the history that has brought you here to me.’
The movement of history is constantly felt in Smith’s poetry, with the legacy of slavery, or even more recent struggles and dangers to Black lives, with Colin Kaepernick making an appearance in a poem. There is the movement of people, by slave ship, by diaspora, and even a poem on Pangea where the stanzas look like the plates moving away from each other (Smith occasionally uses inventive forms, like the Pangea poem or a poem about a Black boy executed in the electric chair written to form the shape of a chair). Though this collection is not all gloom and trauma, and is, ultimately, hopeful. The connections of the past are also shown in the connection he feels with his children, their dreams his dreams, their pains and fears also his:
‘You, little one, are not attached to my body,
you are neither a limb nor a slice of skin,
but you are part of me in ways I am still
discovering, and when you are hurt, I feel
your distress spread through every cell in me.
I experience your wounds as if they were my own’
While this collection is from Clint Smith’s perspective and centers fatherhood for the most part, he does not erase or downplay his wife’s importance, which was quite lovely to see. I especially liked the poem Gold Stars where he discusses how ‘it’s not that I don’t want people to tell me // I’m doing a good job it's just that I’m praised for the sorts / of things no one ever thanks my wife for.’ Which is a real thing for sure. There was a few years where I was a single parent of a young child, which is a lot of living constantly in survival mode especially when you don’t have much disposable income and are working multiple jobs. But I noticed this often, all the smiles and praise to just be a dad out with a young girl doing normal things or having fun, as if it was some success story to not be a shitty dad while single mothers, on the other hand, get intense scrutiny, criticism and scorn from society at every turn. It made me start to notice things even in friends that really bothered me, like when a man says they are ‘on babysitter duty’ when its literally just watching the kids like a dad should do. Or how often divorced dads are the “fun” parent while the mom takes the bulk of the work. Dr. Kate Manne's essay collection Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women has a really insightful chapter on this and the way women’s domestic labor is often invisible to society despite higher demands on it. I’m glad Clint Smith addresses this because the inequity around parenting is staggering.
Above Ground is a really lovely collection that straddles the personal with a larger scope of society and history. Clint Smith writes in very straightforward but affecting prose that navigates parenthood is such a charming and familiar way, steering the reader through the tumultuousness of society and struggles before nestling us down into bed, his words like a lullaby helping us feel soft and warm in the tenderness of his poetry. I’ll leave you with one of the best poems I’ve read so far this year.
5/5
What People Say
“We Have Made It Through Worse Before”
all I hear is the wind slapping against the gravestones
of those who did not make it, those who did not
survive to see the confetti fall from the sky, those who
did not live to watch the parade roll down the street.
I have grown accustomed to a lifetime of aphorisms
meant to assuage my fears, pithy sayings meant to
convey that everything ends up fine in the end. There is no
solace in rearranging language to make a different word
tell the same lie. Sometimes the moral arc of the universe
does not bend in a direction that will comfort us.
Sometimes it bends in ways we don’t expect & there are
people who fall off in the process. Please, dear reader,
do not say I am hopeless, I believe there is a better future
to fight for, I simply accept the possibility that I may not
live to see it. I have grown weary of telling myself lies
that I might one day begin to believe. We are not all left
standing after the war has ended. Some of us have
become ghosts by the time the dust has settled.
March 5, 2023
Yeah, this one is very good. Poems on parenthood and ancestry and home. More humor than I expected (in a good way) a little sweet (not too sweet but close) very much full of love. If you’re scared of poetry have no fear. These poems are so accesible and make sense and make you think.
I reread this. Still very good. Maybe better the second time. The ideas of legacy and all the things at once come through even stronger on reread.
I reread this. Still very good. Maybe better the second time. The ideas of legacy and all the things at once come through even stronger on reread.
February 17, 2023
Some years ago (how long can I keep using “some”? I’ll keep pushing it) I was headed to the massive auditorium on campus to go to class when a friend texted me to tell me that I should try and stay after class – someone was going to be coming in and doing poetry. That’s when I first heard of Clint Smith – he was standing there, reciting some amazing poetry. For one reason or another, I didn’t cross paths with him in any meaningful capacity again. A friend would read his works here, I would see a tweet there. And then this.
A 5-star collection of poetry for sure. Dealing with a changing landscape, racial divides, social insecurities that feel beyond tired. But all of that gets pushed aside in a sense, magnified in another, all in accommodation of his newborn. The challenge of fatherhood, the love of a loyal wife, the look of adoration from a baby. Constant, back-to-back hitters with this one. Try and get your hands on a copy if you’re experiencing baby fever.
Some of my favourite poems:
- By Chance
- Ode to the Electric Baby Swing
- Your National Anthem
- This Is an Incomprehensive List of all the Reasons I Know I Married the Right Person
- Ode to the Bear Hug
- For the Doctor’s Record
- We See Another School Shooting on the News
- Ossicones
- Alarm
Thanks to Little, Brown and Company for the ARC.
A 5-star collection of poetry for sure. Dealing with a changing landscape, racial divides, social insecurities that feel beyond tired. But all of that gets pushed aside in a sense, magnified in another, all in accommodation of his newborn. The challenge of fatherhood, the love of a loyal wife, the look of adoration from a baby. Constant, back-to-back hitters with this one. Try and get your hands on a copy if you’re experiencing baby fever.
Some of my favourite poems:
- By Chance
- Ode to the Electric Baby Swing
- Your National Anthem
- This Is an Incomprehensive List of all the Reasons I Know I Married the Right Person
- Ode to the Bear Hug
- For the Doctor’s Record
- We See Another School Shooting on the News
- Ossicones
- Alarm
Thanks to Little, Brown and Company for the ARC.
May 20, 2023
Audiobook…..read Clint Smith
……1 hour and 30 minutes
How do we hold despair and wonder in the same hands?
How do we raise our children in this changing world?
Clint Smith is an incredible gifted poet. Each word is piercingly powerful!!
Highly recommend!!
……1 hour and 30 minutes
How do we hold despair and wonder in the same hands?
How do we raise our children in this changing world?
Clint Smith is an incredible gifted poet. Each word is piercingly powerful!!
Highly recommend!!
January 29, 2023
I am not into poetry, but this group of poems caught my attention when I read the first one. For folks who are maybe a little newer to the poetry scene, this collection is an excellent starting point. His poems contained the multitude of emotions that come with parenthood and, although simple, reflected a kind of love all children hope to have from their family. There were poems in here that made me tear up, others that made me smile, and quite a few that made me feel everything else in between. What a stunning collection of poetry I highly recommend. This will change the way you feel about poetry. It touched my heart and soul.
July 27, 2024
“The things that continue to make us who we are long after they have served their purpose” (from Ossicones, 76-77).
Clint Smith is one of my favorite contemporary writers on the areas of anti racist pedagogy and literature. His nonfiction book “How the World is Passed” and poetry collection “Counting Descent” are two of my favorite recent books. I couldn’t wait to reading this collection when I heard it was about to be published and released.
This poetry collection is mostly about Smith’s feelings of being a father in a racially fraught America.
Though the poems are written beautifully, this was a huge misfire for me. The poems all come from his heart, and his vulnerability is more than apparent.
The whole notion of celebrating having kids and parenthood as well as the idea of heteronormativity annoyed me to no end which made this one leaving me more than cold. I did not feel connected to this book at all.
I didn’t care to read about Smith raising his kids or the joys of being a parent. Or the love he has for his wife. All great things for him and for those who have a personal connection to the tropes in this collection, but it was definitely not for me. I didn’t care one iota about his personal life and making it political seemed like stretch.
I also did not want to read poetry of Smith possibly being the speaker, engaged in moments of sex and intimacy. This kind of baring of the soul from the author itself is not something I want to read- and I can’t unread nor can I unsee Smith having sex in my mind (though he is a very hot man!)
A book that annoyed me to no end and having given me the relief I felt after reading it warrants the lowest star.
Clint Smith is one of my favorite contemporary writers on the areas of anti racist pedagogy and literature. His nonfiction book “How the World is Passed” and poetry collection “Counting Descent” are two of my favorite recent books. I couldn’t wait to reading this collection when I heard it was about to be published and released.
This poetry collection is mostly about Smith’s feelings of being a father in a racially fraught America.
Though the poems are written beautifully, this was a huge misfire for me. The poems all come from his heart, and his vulnerability is more than apparent.
The whole notion of celebrating having kids and parenthood as well as the idea of heteronormativity annoyed me to no end which made this one leaving me more than cold. I did not feel connected to this book at all.
I didn’t care to read about Smith raising his kids or the joys of being a parent. Or the love he has for his wife. All great things for him and for those who have a personal connection to the tropes in this collection, but it was definitely not for me. I didn’t care one iota about his personal life and making it political seemed like stretch.
I also did not want to read poetry of Smith possibly being the speaker, engaged in moments of sex and intimacy. This kind of baring of the soul from the author itself is not something I want to read- and I can’t unread nor can I unsee Smith having sex in my mind (though he is a very hot man!)
A book that annoyed me to no end and having given me the relief I felt after reading it warrants the lowest star.
July 2, 2023
Thank you to Little, Brown and Company for listing this fantastic book that I won in a Goodreads Giveaway.
I’ve found myself revisiting this book of poems from time to time. My take on this is if you’re looking to feel something, pick up this book. I cannot say what you’ll feel, but I believe some kind of emotion will be evoked by immersing yourself in any of these thoughtful poems.
There are so many wonderful poems in this book, but here are a few of my favorites:
- The First Time I Saw My Grandfather Cry
- After the Storm They Attempted to Identify the Bodies
- Deceit
Thank you for reading.
I’ve found myself revisiting this book of poems from time to time. My take on this is if you’re looking to feel something, pick up this book. I cannot say what you’ll feel, but I believe some kind of emotion will be evoked by immersing yourself in any of these thoughtful poems.
There are so many wonderful poems in this book, but here are a few of my favorites:
- The First Time I Saw My Grandfather Cry
- After the Storm They Attempted to Identify the Bodies
- Deceit
Thank you for reading.
April 30, 2023
a super powerful poetry collection about black fatherhood.
August 8, 2023
Favorite poems in this collection: "Ode to the Electric Baby Swing", "Your National Anthem", "Deceit", "Gold Stars", and "Prehistoric Questions".
August 30, 2023
Fantastic collection about fatherhood in our current day and age.
March 28, 2023
In Above Ground, Clint Smith transforms the mundane moments of parenthood into moving reflections on family, race, and the current state of the world. I’m not sure how objective I can be in reviewing the collection: it feels like a personal gift in this year when I’ve struggled with the yawning gap between what I’m feeling as a first time parent and what I can communicate to other people.
It often seems like there’s nothing to say about parenthood that hasn’t been said before, but Smith avoids cliche by playing with scale, juxtaposing the intimate and the immense. There are multiple poems in this collection about dinosaurs (in books, in bathtubs), odes to baby hiccups and the beauty of the baby swing, descriptions of kitchen dance parties and hotdog Halloween costumes. These entries share space with meditations on New Orleans after Katrina, on gun violence and military violence and the legacy of slavery. The existence of these poems next to each other makes clear the stakes of parenting in a world that can feel inherently dangerous.
Smith’s style is quite narrative, and there isn’t as much experimentation with syntax or language as I’m accustomed to with poetry. As a result, the collection sometimes reads a little like a memoir with line breaks. I can see it appealing to my most poetry-skeptical students, who ask every year why poetry can’t just say what it means. Most readers will find something here that speaks to them, I think; I know that I’m leaving with a profound sense of gratitude for Smith’s efforts to put words to the everyday enormity of parenting.
It often seems like there’s nothing to say about parenthood that hasn’t been said before, but Smith avoids cliche by playing with scale, juxtaposing the intimate and the immense. There are multiple poems in this collection about dinosaurs (in books, in bathtubs), odes to baby hiccups and the beauty of the baby swing, descriptions of kitchen dance parties and hotdog Halloween costumes. These entries share space with meditations on New Orleans after Katrina, on gun violence and military violence and the legacy of slavery. The existence of these poems next to each other makes clear the stakes of parenting in a world that can feel inherently dangerous.
Smith’s style is quite narrative, and there isn’t as much experimentation with syntax or language as I’m accustomed to with poetry. As a result, the collection sometimes reads a little like a memoir with line breaks. I can see it appealing to my most poetry-skeptical students, who ask every year why poetry can’t just say what it means. Most readers will find something here that speaks to them, I think; I know that I’m leaving with a profound sense of gratitude for Smith’s efforts to put words to the everyday enormity of parenting.
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June 16, 2023imagine being the child and reading this years later as a gift your father wrote for you 🥹 poetry is a gift! poems are an act of love and remembrance that can be for yourself but more importantly, for someone you love ❤️
April 13, 2023
Poetry about parenting, infertility, and marriage all while dealing with the world around us.
April 18, 2023
exceptionally well written
April 22, 2023
I think I would have liked this better if I could have related to more of the poems as it talks about parenthood.
April 14, 2024
This was a beautiful collection about fatherhood and love. I enjoyed all the poems and the stories he told. I recommend, especially if you’re looking for more poetry collections to read!
February 15, 2024
Read this book. You will regret it if you don’t.
Not sure you are a poetry reader? I challenge you to read the first poem from this book and see what you think.
Still not sure?
Listen to this short interview with Clint Smith on the Late Show.
Not sure you are a poetry reader? I challenge you to read the first poem from this book and see what you think.
Still not sure?
Listen to this short interview with Clint Smith on the Late Show.
February 20, 2024
I could almost not put this collection down. Had it not been from the library, I may have marked on every page, that's how many bangers there are here (pardon my colloquialism). An excellent option for the poetry-averse, as Smith's style is lyrical and weighty, but approachable and not intimidating in the least. "Ode to the Electric Baby Swing" is magic.
January 6, 2024
Pure gold.
May 1, 2023
When I heard the author interviewed on NPR, I knew I wanted to read this book. It is an entire book of poems focused on his children and his family. The poetry is varied and considers his family and his fears and love for them. He details his feelings as he and his wife become first time parents, his love for the way his son greets him when he gets home, the fun times they have together --- along with his fears for his children; all the racial evils, the pains and sometimes humor in life. This is just a fun book of poetry - not silly or funny like Dr. Seuss - just fun. If you never tried poetry, try this. He won a National Book Critics Circle award for nonfiction and I expect he will win many other awards for this book. He is a true wordsmith. Try it - you will like it. I may even buy copies for the new grandmas in my life.
December 21, 2022
What a stunning collection of poetry and an incredibly powerful rumination on lineage, family, and legacy. There were poems in here that made me tear up, others that made me smile, and quite a few that made me feel everything else in between. Clint Smith has a remarkable gift; I hope everyone takes the time to see what he has in store.
And for folks who are maybe a little newer to the poetry scene, this collection is an excellent starting point. Its contents are hard-hitting but easy to understand, and I loved the accessibility of it.
And for folks who are maybe a little newer to the poetry scene, this collection is an excellent starting point. Its contents are hard-hitting but easy to understand, and I loved the accessibility of it.
April 22, 2023
Clint Smith’s poetry evokes so many little moments of parenting a young child. They remind me of the incredible weight of being the sun in your child’s orbit, the terror of his unknown path, and the joy of his innocent observations. As the seasons roll by, it’s easy to let the memory of these moments slide away. In the collection are poems outside of my experience, but they speak to my heart, something we all have in common. I will read Above Ground again, and it will find a place in my bookshelves where I can pick it up and find calm with a few lines.
April 4, 2023
I will read every book Clint Smith publishes, forever, I think.
August 19, 2023
Yes, I know I’m biased, but for my works summer bingo, I finally sat down to read the whole thing. I finished the last two poems on my phone, during my lunch break, in the garage, surrounded by so many books but I’m struck by how much this one meant. With his talent, Clint had taken individuals that I know and love, and shown me how he views them. His father is not just my uncle, but is a recipient of kidney transplants that saved his life.
He’s also given me a new perspective on himself as well. He’s not just my astronomically talented cousin, he’s also a father, apparently a top notch breakfast maker, and a dance party participant.
This book is a testament to the complexity of people, and events, but really just a testament to the love that surrounds us. 🥰
He’s also given me a new perspective on himself as well. He’s not just my astronomically talented cousin, he’s also a father, apparently a top notch breakfast maker, and a dance party participant.
This book is a testament to the complexity of people, and events, but really just a testament to the love that surrounds us. 🥰
March 30, 2024
I loved every poem in this beautiful and powerful collection that balances parenthood/fatherhood (including everyday life things like an ode to the double stroller) with some of the sad/heavier topics that are happening/have been happening around the world (including school shootings etc.). I listened to the audiobook and read the physical book with my eyes and highly recommend both experiences. The audiobook, which is read by Clint Smith, was so powerful that I listened to most of the poems more than once. I also loved the use of white space and punctuation in the poems (e.g. For Willie Francis, the First Known Person to Survive an Execution by Electric Chair, 1946 is in the shape of a chair). This is a collection that will stay with me for a long time.
June 9, 2023
This was so lovely and thought provoking. I loved Clint Smith’s How the Word is Passed and how lyrical his writing is. This poetry collection is very approachable and centered on parenting, family, and making sense of the world. The way it juxtaposes the ordinary moments of being a dad against big, heavy issues in the world (climate change, school shootings, the aftermath of Katrina, etc.) provided me with a nice opportunity to pause and consider the wider world more deeply while being grateful for the small moments all at the same time.
December 17, 2023
One of my favorite books of this year; an incredible collection of poems/essays on fatherhood.
Clint wrote these over the past 5ish years as his first two children were born (and a lot of other crazy things were happening in the world). It is a beautiful and intimate (and often humorous) look not only into what it feels like to be a young parent in 2023, but also the aspects of parenting that transcend generations.
I highly, highly suggest this book to anyone - but especially young dads.
Thank you, Clint.
Clint wrote these over the past 5ish years as his first two children were born (and a lot of other crazy things were happening in the world). It is a beautiful and intimate (and often humorous) look not only into what it feels like to be a young parent in 2023, but also the aspects of parenting that transcend generations.
I highly, highly suggest this book to anyone - but especially young dads.
Thank you, Clint.
June 15, 2023
I don’t normally read poetry but this was great! Quick read. Thought-provoking and touching. Highly recommend.
December 19, 2023
This book made me wish I was a parent to a human child.
April 26, 2023
I am not a poetry guy, but I had to get a copy of "Above Ground" since Clint Smith's "How the Word is Passed" is one of my favorite and one of the best (those two things don't always mean the same thing!) reads of the past few years. This slim volume did not disappoint -- a sublime mix of hope and dismay, anger and love, wonder and worry -- and totally accessible to my fellow non-poetry readers or appreciators. No surprise that race, politics, climate change all make appearances, but the primary focus in this slim (107 pages) but still sizable (60ish poems?) collection is on Smith's family and fatherhood.
If I chose to be persnickety, I would have likely given this a round-down to 4 stars as there really is a *LOT* of poems about his kids which isn't exactly my jam as a middle-aged gay married man, but they are all still so very good. And it was kind of easy for me to substitute the kids for "having a sense of wonder in the world" and parenthood as having an extra and more palpable worry / heightened investment in the future of our world, both in a physical and spiritual way, so making bit of a mental shift helped make those (many!) particular poems resonate as well.
If possible, I would recommend getting a physical copy of the book (tho I am sure Smith's audio is terrific too -- I love listening to him) as there are a lot of intentional use of space and breaks -- some of the poems are even paragraph style, so reading a physical copy really enhanced my experience. As an added bonus, I ordered a copy from Smith's local bookstore, Loyalty Books (a Black Queer woman and Biracial Filipina Disabled Queer woman owned - how about that!) where he signed hundreds of copies - tho spoiler alert, his signature is one of those almost undecipherable squiggles. Overall, an unofficial 4.5 stars with a Goodreads round-up to 5.
If I chose to be persnickety, I would have likely given this a round-down to 4 stars as there really is a *LOT* of poems about his kids which isn't exactly my jam as a middle-aged gay married man, but they are all still so very good. And it was kind of easy for me to substitute the kids for "having a sense of wonder in the world" and parenthood as having an extra and more palpable worry / heightened investment in the future of our world, both in a physical and spiritual way, so making bit of a mental shift helped make those (many!) particular poems resonate as well.
If possible, I would recommend getting a physical copy of the book (tho I am sure Smith's audio is terrific too -- I love listening to him) as there are a lot of intentional use of space and breaks -- some of the poems are even paragraph style, so reading a physical copy really enhanced my experience. As an added bonus, I ordered a copy from Smith's local bookstore, Loyalty Books (a Black Queer woman and Biracial Filipina Disabled Queer woman owned - how about that!) where he signed hundreds of copies - tho spoiler alert, his signature is one of those almost undecipherable squiggles. Overall, an unofficial 4.5 stars with a Goodreads round-up to 5.
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