You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir

Bittersweet

At their wedding, a college professor reads John Ciardi’s “Most Like an Arch This Marriage,” which describes how two people lean against one another to make something stronger.

Violet

In December 2008, Smith gives birth to her daughter Violet. The pregnancy is difficult, and Smith is coerced into having a Caesarean section. When she sees her daughter, Smith feels that she is recognizing someone she already knew.

Grounds

Smith experiences postpartum depression after the birth of Violet. Her husband is finishing law school, and each day Smith eagerly waits for him to return home. During the first year of Violet’s life, Smith is unable to write. Then, at the end of the year, a poem emerges.

First Fall

This poem is written in first-person narrative voice. The narrator speaks to a child, explaining that fall is leaving and, with it, everything the narrator has taught her child about the season.

The Play

In the play version of Smith’s divorce, many key moments are unseen to the audience. The audience does not witness the many arguments and moments of tension that Smith and her husband experience as they make decisions about where they should live and what type of lives they should have.