Comforting words you need today.
Maggie Smith (poet) on art, motherhood, and life not making any sense.
“This is not a story about a good wife and a bad husband,” poet Maggie Smith starts out her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful.
It’s also not a tell-all, but maybe a tell-mine, she explains. You Could Make This Place Beautiful is in some ways an inventory of the foreshadowing events that lead up to her separation from her husband during the pandemic. One of the ways that Maggie starts to reflect on her marriage is by omission – see if you can find her husband in the following viral poem from 2016:
You Could Make This Place Beautiful is an investigation into what happened and what life is actually about - sometimes two very different things. It searches for truth while knowing that there are multiple truths.
If I am being honest, the themes in this book were oddly applicable to my life. I wrestle with making art or spending time with my family. My partner is also an artist who has a day job as an architect. Our marriage has had its ups and downs.
I have decided, and it is a decision we both have to make, that I am going to stick with Josh. Unless something extreme happens. When I picked up Maggie Smith’s book on her divorce, I wondered for a brief moment if this book would be a reflection of what is in my future. (Humans think that their lives are not dictated by the choices of others, but I disagree. People have kids in groups, they marry in groups, and they die in groups.)
We are at the age when our friends are starting to divorce. Or not. In Good Bones, I see my own situation clearly. I am obsessed with art and my kid. This leaves very little room/time to connect with Josh. I just don’t have the bandwidth to love him like I did before we had M. Mostly, we are just ships passing in the night, enjoying each other by the maintenance of the house, taking comfort that the other will show up in time to relieve the other.
For me, this was a wake-up call, a warning note, that I needed to tend to things before they get to the part of so far gone, too far to warrant repair. Maggie intends the title to be a call to action, and it was for me. You Could Make This Place Beautiful. “Life is a series of choices - everything was possible.”
She is not after forgiveness, but more looking for acceptance. What does that feel like? This feeling is encapsulated in the poem Bride. It’s a moment when you feel like you are in the exact spot you were meant to be in.
Today, I have an assignment for you, I want you to listen to some music that matches the way you want to feel. I don’t care what that feeling is. Just do it. Do it for me. Use this as a reminder of the person you are.
I hope you enjoyed Maggie Smith’s work as much as I do. She has an amazing substack:
To enter to win a copy of You Could Make This Place Beautiful, comment here:
OR get a signed copy from Maggie’s local bookseller here.
Self-love. Being one's own bride. One's own hero. One's own love. Such an important reminder. Thank you. I would dearly value a copy of this book, You Could Make This Place Beautiful. Thank you for your beautiful words, Maggie.
Beautiful beautiful ❤️