Overview
"Patricia Smith is the greatest living poet. Every book is better than the last." --Danez Smith, The Guardian A collection of the finest new and selected poems from one of the most groundbreaking voices in contemporary poetry, a "masterful performer and poet of voices too little heard" (Poetry Foundation). The Intentions of Thunder gathers, for the first time, the essential work from across Patricia Smith's decorated career. Here, Smith's poems, affixed with her remarkable gift of insight, present a rapturous ode to life. With careful yet vaulting movement, these poems traverse the redeeming landscape of pain, confront the frightening revelations of history, and disclose the joyous possibilities of the future. The result is a profound testament to the necessity of poetry--all the careful witness, embodied experience, and bristling pleasure that it bestows--and of Smith's necessary voice. Lyrical and sly, meditative and volcanic, The Intentions of Thunder stunningly explores the fullness of living. The inimitable poetry of Patricia Smith radiates in The Intentions of Thunder --reaffirming Smith's place as one of the indispensable poets of our time.
Professional Reviews
PRAISE FOR PATRICIA SMITH
"[ Unshuttered ] is an affecting, lyrical work of empathy and imagination complemented by stunning images."
-- starred review, Publishers Weekly
"With tender precision, Smith's exquisite photo album elucidates our past and steers us toward a more conscious and ethical future."
-- starred review, Booklist
"Her work is always timely, powerful, necessary, and at turns heartbreaking."
-- Natasha Trethewey, author of Memorial Drive: A Daughter's Memoir
"Smith exhibits razor-sharp linguistic sensibilities that give her scenes a cinematic flair and her lines a momentum that buoys their emotional weight. This is best captured in 'Elegy,' a stunning, long-lined poem about her thick-as-thieves relationship with her father, who found it difficult to be his wife's 'sky and root.' Smith's urgent collection lives up to its title, burning bright and urgent as a bonfire."
-- Publishers Weekly
"Patricia Smith's moving collection of elegies combines the act of witness with the delights of lyric poetry, intervening with master narratives of history, or sociology, to rescue the suffering subject. The rich sonic texture of the work enables the subtle modulations of mordant wit, anger, and grief throughout the collection, where feeling is tuned by assonance and consonance."
-- Averill Curdy, editor, The Longman Anthology of Poetry
"Incendiary Art is the fire this time. An epic in five movements where history becomes tragedy, becomes farce, becomes fable. Where the reader becomes complicit, where outcomes burn into forgotten memories, and where nobody gets off the hook."
-- Marlon James
"Patricia Smith is a masterful poet, performer, and pundit. And while her chosen field is the form and grace of language, her gift to the world that orbits the Black experience is truth."
-- Walter Mosley, author of The Awkward Black Man: Stories
"Over the course of her career, Patricia Smith has a reputation for tackling complicated ideas, combining humor and tragedy, and bridging the gap between spoken word and lyrical prose."
-- Alex Dueben, The Millions
"A great stage performer and a former national slam poetry champion, Smith is also a performer on the page."
-- John S. O'Connor, Harvard Review
"As ever, Smith expands our definitions of what poetry is, masterfully incorporating multiple senses and perspectives. This invocation across time is at the heart of a collection by a poet at the height of her abilities."
-- Mandana Chaffa, Chicago Review of Books
"Smith has a way of shining light into the darkness with a necessary and timely tongue of fire, challenging readers to open their eyes and face the truth."
-- Kathryn de Lancellotti, The Bind
