Publishers Weekly asks after imaginary audiences

As part of its National Poetry Month package, Publishers Weekly profiles four poets—Bruce Smith, Tracy K. Smith, Srikanth Reddy, and David Orr—asking all "who do you imagine is the ideal reader for your book"?

Quoth Srikanth:

When I was four years old, the American space program launched two probes—Voyager 1 and Voyager 2—into creation, each bearing a gold-plated phonograph record, which contained sounds and images selected to convey some sense of life on our planet. Included on the records were Bach and Indonesian gamelan music, diagrams of our DNA and geopolitical orders, and spoken greetings in 55 languages ranging from Akkadian to Wu. The intended audience was anybody out there in deep space who might find it. As I began writing, I thought I, too, was writing for whoever may or may not have been waiting out there in the darkness . . .