The Intentions of ThunderThe Intentions of Thunder

"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. Lyrical and sly, meditative and volcanic, Patricia Smith's poems are testimonials of American experience, from the bus north to Chicago during the Great Migration to the funeral of Emmett Till, from the waiting rooms of Boston's prisons to New Orleans's Ninth Ward during Hurricane Katrina. Few poets have so fearlessly confronted our nation as it truly is, with all its dreams and nightmares. The Intentions of Thunder reaffirms Smith's reputation as a sorceress of form and one of the indispensable poets of our time" --