Midmorning With Aundrea - November 12, 2020 (Part 2)

(Part 2 of 4) Poet Maggie Smith made a splash in 2016 when a poem she wrote went viral.

Now, she's back with a new collection of poems called "Keep Moving".

A writer in ohio who captured the mood of á2016á with a viral poem has a new outlook in á2020.á maggie smith's poem "good bones was about a parent wrestling with what to tell her children about the world.

It was widely shared after the contentious election in 2016.

After connecting with so many americans during that time, she's hoping to do the same with her ánewá book, called "keep moving.

Tony dokoupil spoke with maggie smith, about how she's feeling now.

Osu video @ 00:21 "the world is a least fifty percent terrible, and that's a conservative estimate&" that was maggie smith in 2016.

And today, as she looks back at the admittedly dark, and darkly funny work she published four years ago & " ...and for ever kind stranger, there is one who would break you, though i keep this from my children."

& she'll be the first to admit -- she has not always been inclined to look on the bright side.

Maggie smith: 11:59:22 // i call myself a recovering pessimist.

// if we expect the worst // we won't be surprised.

And in fact, we'll be right.

It was amid another ugly election fight& trump: first of all, hillary, everything's broken about it.

Everything.

And right after a gunman mowed down more than 49 people in orlando&.

When her poem "good bones happened to appear in a small literary journal&a year after she'd written it.

11:34:28 // i was just writing it as a mother, raising two small kids in the 21st century, not quite sure how to explain this world to them.

Because i don't even know how to really explain it to myself.

But the work was soon áeverywhereá on social media& &fueled by newspaper headlines & and celebrated by public radio international, which declared it poem of the year &.in what some considered "th worst year ever."

&a complicated honor for its author.

Maggie smith: 11:37:42 i call it a disaster barometer.

// when-- when it's shared widely-- it's because people need it.

And if people need it, probably something has happened.

And a lot has happened since then&with the poem booming online thru news cycles of violence and cruelty&and far too few moments of grace.

But against the odds, maggie smith herself says she is no longer a pessimist&a transformation she credits to the writing of her new book.

14:10:55 "trust that th present moment--however difficult, however different from what you'd imagined--has something to teach you.

Keep moving."

"keep moving notes on loss, creativity and change," i published by simon & schuster, a division of viacom- cbs.

It's not a work of poetry but a series of little pep talks meant to focus attention on what's possible&instead of what's lost.

Maggie smith: 11:47:52 // i wrote this book really out of the desire to get myself from point a to point b.

Smith's marriage was ending in 2018&and she started writing and then tweeting as a way to navigate through the pain.

14:11:25 "accep that you are a work in progress, both a revision and a draft: you are better and more complete than earlier versions of yourself, but you also have work to do.

Be open to change."

But as with "goo bones," it turne out that what maggie smith was trying to say&a lot other people were looking to hear.

Maggie smith: 11:43:22 // people would say things like-- "this i exactly what i need today."

O they would joke and say, "are yo on my group texts?"

Maggie smith: 12:05:44 it's about not looking in the rearview mirror, and really focusing on the present and the possibility and potential of what's ahead.

And i don't know about you, but i need that more than ever this year.

Tony dokoupil: i think we all do.

To that end & the book is filled with both hope&and advice for making that hope a reality.

"every person yo encounter has a struggle, a hidden wound, something they carry that hurts them.

Be kind--maybe something you do or say today could be the good medicine they need."

All of it, quite a change for this pessimist in recovery.

Tony dokoupil: 11:46:38 self help is a term-- i-- i'm curious //are you a self help author now?

Maggie smith: 11:46:45 i supposed i am.

I mean, i say this book is literal self help, because i wrote it to help myself.

// and the fact that it might help other people in 2020 and beyond is-- is pretty magical and wonderful.

But it's-- it's already done its work-- for me.

Shelter animals are about to take center stage.

We'll tell you why when mid morning returns.

Shelter animals are about to take center stage.