Intentions of Thunder
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“The poet and critic Terrance Hayes named Patricia Smith the most important and interesting Black poet writing today. He didn’t mention, however, the excellence of her performance of her work…Winner of the Earphones Award.”
Kirkus Audiobook Reviews
Winner of the Earphones Award for Narration
Winner of the National Book Award
An Electric Literature Best Book of 2025
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
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.
Praise