Good Bones

“Good Bones” is by Maggie Smith—an American poet of several full length collections of poetry and award-winning chapbooks. “Good Bones” was initially published in 2016 in Waxwing Literary Journal. Since then, the poem has gone internationally viral on the internet, becoming the official poem of 2017, according to Public Radio International (PRI). The poem’s publication was timely, appearing the same week that several traumatic international events occurred, including the mass shooting at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida and the murder of Jo Cox, a member of parliament, in the UK. Shared on Twitter, the poem quickly gained attention and became a mouthpiece for the confusing world in which readers suddenly found themselves.

“Good Bones” is a single 17-line stanza and explores themes of existence, the state of the world, and how to happily and peacefully live in a world mired in violence. Smith’s speaker is a mother struggling to keep the nastiness of the world from her children. A poem that explores the challenges of raising children during difficult times, “Good Bones” urges the reader to believe in the goodness of the world despite all the bad, and to try to “make this place beautiful” (Line 17).