Dana Levine Week 4 -- Pick-A-Poet #1 -- Clint Smith

  Clint Smith began writing poetry in 2008. He rose in popularity as he wrote about social justice and equality. As I was researching Clint Smith, one of the first poems that came up was called “Something You Should Know”. This poem begins in an interesting way, by assuming that you read the title and dove right into the poem; it is meant to begin with the lines “Something you should know” from the title, but rather the first line of the poem is “is that as a kid, I once worked at a pet store,” thus wanting you to read it as “Something you should know is that as a kid, I once worked at a pet store.” Immediately grabbing the reader's attention; it makes you think and? Why do I care? You know from here that this seemingly useless piece of information is going to shift to encompass a greater issue and theme.

    Smith explains how at the pet store he worked at, he would clean the cages of all of the small animals, and one thing he noticed in particular were the hermit crabs. These creatures relied so much on their shells for survival. They would grow out of their old shells and rely on the possibility of there being a new shell at the bottom of the aquarium. Smith was worried for them; they rely so much on something other than their own self for safety. He thought, “Perhaps that is why I became afraid of needing anything beyond myself.” This idea that we rely on so many things for safety, for attention, for love, even for life, is so prevalent now more than ever. We not only rely on other people for happiness, but we rely on social media, our electronics, and materialistic things such as fancy clothing, fancy cars, fancy jewelry. All for what? Do we need it for survival? Not at all...So what’s it for? It’s for our happiness. Are we suddenly unable to achieve a successful life without these things?

Smith talks about how we try to avoid this feeling of being exposed. We don’t want to open up and rely on someone or something for our survival. He brings awareness to the fact that we need to take precautions to not depend on things for our sense of security within ourselves. The ultimate goal is to achieve that security within, but sometimes we spend our whole life trying to attain this goal. So, at this point in your life, what do you rely on for happiness and comfort?