Everybody’s Autobiography
I find myself most alone
When I believe I am striving for glory.
These times, cool and sharp,
A monument of moon-white stone
lodges in place near my heart.
In a dream, my children
Glisten inside raindrops, or teardrops.
Like strangers, like seeds of children.
I will only be allowed to claim them
if I consent to love everyone’s children.
If I consent to love everyone’s children,
Only then will I be allowed to claim them,
My strangers, my seeds of children,
Glistening inside raindrops or teardrops
In my dream. Children
Lodged in place near my heart—
A monument of moon-white stone,
Cool and sharp.
I believe I am striving for glory
When I find myself most alone.
Copyright © 2024 by Tracy K. Smith. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on February 20, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.
“This poem emerged from a dream that challenged me to embrace a wider radius of compassion in my daily living. It has, for me, become a kind of psalm for living in a world at war, and maintaining an investment in the safety and sanctity of strangers.”
—Tracy K. Smith
Tracy K. Smith
Tracy K. Smith is the author of Such Color: New and Selected Poems (Graywolf Press, 2021), Wade in the Water (Graywolf Press, 2018), winner of the 2019 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry, Life on Mars (Graywolf Press, 2011), winner of the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and Duende (Graywolf Press, 2007), which received the 2006 James Laughlin Award. Smith served as the poet laureate of the United States from 2017 to 2019.