Good bones, the collection that took the internet by storm in 2017, is a collection of modern poetry that speaks to the world we live in. Maggie Smith contemplates the past and our future, life and death, childhood and motherhood. She writes out of the experience of motherhood, inspired by watching her own children read the world like a book they’ve just opened, knowing nothing of the characters or plot.
Smith takes in the dark world around her with a critical eye, always searching for the hidden goodness: compassion, empathy, honesty. Smith skillfully reveals the layers of the world around us through lyric language and vivid imagery.
These poems stare down darkness while cultivating and sustaining possibility and addressing a larger world. We come away from this collection hopeful about making the world a better place, a place to share with future generations.