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Photo Credit: as posted on https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/carmen-gimenez-smith
"Born in New York, poet Carmen Giménez Smith earned a BA in English from San Jose State University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She is the author of six collections of poetry, including Cruel Futures (City Lights, 2018); Milk and Filth (2013), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and Goodbye, Flicker (University of Massachusetts Press, 2012), winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry."
Source: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/carmen-gimenez-smith
Live Readings
Live Readings
Skip to 6:02 to hear "Beach."
Poems
Poems
All Money Is A Matter of Belief Adam Smith
Every poet glistens with the dewof money, but surely only some of themtruly have it. Never enough, wanting to knowwhat enough felt like, I buy fake versionsof the things I want on credit, my shelvesladen with zirconia, Prada knockoffs, andpirated Oscar screeners. I’m driven by envy,and gluttony, the desire to consume betterthan anyone else, but the pleasure is only halfof what it should be, and so on until my houseis filled with objects that belong to Chaseand AmEx. I’ve been relentless and I’ve beenlucky, but that’s never been enough.I’d sell my soul, but there aren’t any takers.
-from Cruel Futures (2018)
Every poet glistens with the dewof money, but surely only some of themtruly have it. Never enough, wanting to knowwhat enough felt like, I buy fake versionsof the things I want on credit, my shelvesladen with zirconia, Prada knockoffs, andpirated Oscar screeners. I’m driven by envy,and gluttony, the desire to consume betterthan anyone else, but the pleasure is only halfof what it should be, and so on until my houseis filled with objects that belong to Chaseand AmEx. I’ve been relentless and I’ve beenlucky, but that’s never been enough.I’d sell my soul, but there aren’t any takers.
-from Cruel Futures (2018)
Television Prevents Me From Seeing the World as It Really Is
Simultaneity and Good Exposition are impossible in film and TV!Workplace shows tout hypercompetence and workaholism!Soap operas and sitcoms are the genre novels of television!TV villains have a paradoxical narcotic effect!Television makes spitefulness in men a siren song, but a venom in women!Reality television is filled with people who make banality into cash!My petty Madame Bovarian despair is at the core of all my watching!Violence is more famous than pornography!The serial killer is fetishized because America collects everything! How frangible our women, one choice from death!Let’s bring that back on CBS!
-from Cruel Futures (2018)
Simultaneity and Good Exposition are impossible in film and TV!Workplace shows tout hypercompetence and workaholism!Soap operas and sitcoms are the genre novels of television!TV villains have a paradoxical narcotic effect!Television makes spitefulness in men a siren song, but a venom in women!Reality television is filled with people who make banality into cash!My petty Madame Bovarian despair is at the core of all my watching!Violence is more famous than pornography!The serial killer is fetishized because America collects everything! How frangible our women, one choice from death!Let’s bring that back on CBS!
-from Cruel Futures (2018)
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