A Suit or a Suitcase - by Maggie Smith (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A poetry collection from the New York Times bestselling poet"-- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Instant New York Times bestselling author and poet Maggie Smith returns with a new collection of poems on the sometimes-blurry distinction between mind and body, and how the self shifts and moves through time and space.

The title of Maggie Smith's new collection comes from the eponymous poem:

You ask what I'll miss about this life.
Everything but cruelty, I think.

But you want one specific thing,
so here--I'll miss my body. I'll miss

its companionship, how it's traveled
with me, never leaving me--& by me,

I mean my mind. My soul? My self?
I don't know what to call it, and besides,

my body hasn't traveled with me.
I've traveled inside it. Do I wear it

or does it carry me? Is the body a suit
or a suitcase?

Within, poems turn over the strange relationships between the body and the mind, the self and the world. With her signature tenderness and clarity of observation, and with stunning swoops of imagination, Smith considers--and reconsiders--what it is to be human: Does one life matter in the grand scheme of space and time? How can it be that we are the same people we were ten, twenty, or thirty years ago, but also different people? And could there be more to life, just beyond the borders of we can experience?

Each poem is an ode to the power of our minds and proof that both a life and a self, whether within a suit or a suitcase, is infinitely expandable.

Review Quotes

"The poems in A Suit, or A Suitcase point us to larger considerations of the divine. Maggie Smith writes a poetry of profound belonging. The emotional wilderness we enter is rendered more sacred thanks to her commitment to a commonality of speech. At the core of her work is a playfulness, yet too, an insightfulness that urges self reflection. This is a book to return to again and again. Why? One day we will find ourselves near a river and there will be Maggie proclaiming every version of who we are."

--Major Jackson, author of Razzle Dazzle

"These poems help me live. A Suit or a Suitcase explore intricate metaphysical subjects, the nature and interrelationships between the body, the mind, the soul, the self, mortality, and time, with a broad, companionable generosity. Her questions shed sparks, yet her lines, her images, are purposeful; they aspire to clarify rather than obfuscate. These poems share the fruits of a difficult aloneness, and the work of a polished mind and an endlessly revised self that has learned to endure mystery, even while lugging around 'the whole shebang' of her life, even while staying home, staying put. Smith's is a poetry of grace."
--Diane Seuss, Pulitzer Prize winning author of frank: sonnets and Modern Poetry

"A Suit or a Suitcase is a really confident, satisfying collection of poems. Not a word or idea is out of place. The title poem is a real standout."
--Roxane Gay

"I love Maggie Smith's poems. She is immensely generous to all readers. She gives us her sometimes dark, often hilarious, always questioning, always familiar awareness of the strangeness of the everyday. She shares her insights, her pain, her humility, her intense love of people and the world. To read her poems is to become more aware, more sensitive, more loving, more present, more alive."
--Matthew Zapruder, author of I Love Hearing Your Dreams and Story of a Poem

About the Author

Maggie Smith is the award-winning New York Times bestselling author of nine books of poetry and prose, including A Suit or a Suitcase, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Good Bones, Goldenrod, Keep Moving, and My Thoughts Have Wings. She has been widely published, appearing in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, The Nation, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Best American Poetry, and more. She is the host of The Slowdown. You can find her on social media @MaggieSmithPoet.