REWILD & PATTI SMITH'S BOOK OF DAYS /October 20, 2022 by Meredith Stricker

Wondrous convergence: my copies of REWILD & Patti Smith’s illuminating new release Book of Days arrived here on the same day !

I opened a page of Patti’s book randomly and it was August 6 at Hiroshima

& here, on page 23 of REWILD is the series THAT BEAUTY that continues for five pages to this dedication

MEREDITH STRICKER is an artist and poet working in cross-genre media. She is the author of six poetry collections and recipient of the National Poetry Series Award. Her most recent book, REWILD won the Dorset prize and is forthcoming from Tupelo. She co-directs visual poetry studio, a collaborative focusing on architecture in Big Sur and projects to bring together artists, writers, musicians and experimental forms.

REWILD is a collection of documentary lyric poetry that explores places that have been ravaged by war and environ-mental plunder, then left alone from human interference to regenerate and restore. The poems envision ways we might begin to unbuy ourselves, to rewild our communal lives.

My hope is for poetry to give full voice and place to the displaced, undocumented and endangered.

Poems are not decoration, they are not static. They are here to change our lives.