The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems

by Patricia Smith

“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.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Adult, African American, Anthologies

352 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2025

Reviews

[Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve been reading this collection slowly over the past few weeks, really taking my time to savor it. Patricia Smith is one of my favorite poets and The Intentions of Thunder brings together some of Smith’s most iconic poems along with uncollected and new pieces. Therefore, it's a work that I wanted to sit with.

What I loved most was how this book not only traces Smith’s growth as a writer, but also serves as a moving reflection on the African American experience from its exploration of history and its legacies, present struggles, and future hopes. It read as both a personal and collective story, exploring themes of culture, memory, and resilience.

The uncollected poems were especially compelling and fit rather seamlessly with the rest of the collection. And that final section, written as Smith reflects on turning seventy, was a standout. It was a humorous and emotional reminder of the spectrum of human emotions around aging.

I often find that collections that span so many years of a poet’s work can sometimes feel scattered, but this one felt incredibly intentional. The selections from earlier books seemed carefully chosen, creating a sense of continuity and conversation between old and new poems. This was something that really stood out to me as organizational structures of such works are often impacting the reading experience in intentional or unintentional ways. Here, the structure of the book as a whole felt like it added to the intensity and depth of these poems.

Overall, this collection feels like both a celebration of Smith’s artistry and a meditation on the life and legacy that inform it. Reading this made me definitely want to go explore some of her earlier collections that I haven't already read in full - and reminded me again of why I continue to love her poetry!

Thank you to the publisher, Scribner, for an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions shared in this review are my own!

[Pamela Jo Mason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years ago, I bought a book with a CD (that ages me, right?). It’s called “The Spoken Word Revolution”. As I was reading Patricia Smith’s “The Intentions of Thunder” I distinctly remembered how I felt listening to that CD.

Patricia’s book is so emotional and hits straight to the heart. It’s lyrical, provocative, sometimes dark and tense; it is mindful and at times very sexy! 😉 Beautifully written 💕 I am glad I got a paperback copy because I have dog-eared, highlighted and underlined, and annotated until the pages started coming out … I love it!!!

Thank you to the author, Patricia Smith; Scribner, publishers and Goodreads for giving me the opportunity to read and review 😊 Thank you for the Advanced Readers Copy and trusting me with your words! 🥰

Disclaimer - I received this book as a Goodreads giveaway

[ritareadthat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a gift to us all. 🙏🏻😍

[John Caleb Grenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Intentions of Thunder

Patricia Smith

Finalist for the @nationalbookfoundation award for poetry. Thank you @scribnerbooks for sharing a copy with me.

Over the years, Smith has filled these 350 pages with pure Americana, from city streets to southern kitchens.

Smith writes these poems where she puts herself in other peoples heads and shoes:, daughters, fathers, racist skinheads, little Richard, Medusa. it goes on.

She invokes and plays a visceral music as she writes. You can hear these out loud in your head. Even better, you can read these aloud and hear the pointed, true, biting and angry musicality of them.

She loves to add personification to elements of nature—not many people can do this without a bit of kitsch, but there’s none of that here. It’s fiery, interesting.

As a collection spanning nearly forty years, you feel a sense of age, maturity, of finding not only a voice but a growing element of learning to be ok with using all the space she can find. to fill up a page with herself. It seems like with time her poetry gets longer, it revisits itself, elaborates upon and freshens and clarifies.

For Jesmyn Ward lovers, for folks who like poetry but have a hard time knowing what’s new and great, and for anyone wanting to read rich, Black, musical, American poetry, this is your book. It’s easily parked in my top 5 favorite books of poetry, ever.

No one has ever spoken to the exact feeling my soul has at ALL OF IT like @pswordwoman has in this book. I’m not the same after it.

[aubrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

very difficult to rate because a lot of the poems in here are staggeringly good. but then I do also feel that this "greatest hits" collection needed some stricter editing because some of the images and language is quite repetitive. for example, "peppered" is used repeatedly in various contexts and a lot of them overlap in a way that wasn't resonating with me personally.

an unapologetically black collection of poetry that powerfully vocalizes American black life. police brutality, the lack of care in FEMA's response to Katrina, the black joy in Motown, the beauty of the blues, the rage simmering just below the surface.

from unshuttered "31":

"I keep fury away from my face,/away from my shuddering fists, and keep it knotted/inside. just beneath my everyday. there no one will/smell it."

[A Dreaming Bibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for providing me with an eARC.

This was a great collection of poetry highlighting the daily and unfortunate struggles faced by Black people. Some of the poems made me stop and reread it again because the way it was written hit really hard. I couldn't relate to it directly from my personal experiences but I'm sure a lot of people can. The comparisons in some of the poems were done very well -- makes you wonder how you never saw this connection and thought about it this way before. This is a brilliant book written in verse and I would absolutely recommend this to anyone looking for one, especially an own voices book written by a BIPOC author.

[Gregory Duke]

I have tried to move through this for months. I am oddly uninspired. There is a certain obviousness. A musicality, yes, but everything begins to blur thematically and sonically. The Hurricane Katrina sequence proves the most idiosyncratic, but Smith's tendencies don't gel with my mind. C'est la vie. She's apparently received enough love elsewhere.

[Jessica Haider · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5 stars!

[Cass Evavold · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW WOW WOW WOW WOW, THIS WAS GENUINELY A BEAUTIFUL, AND BEYOND MOVING PIECE THAT WOULD DEFINITELY WILL BE RECOMMENDING TO EVERY PERSON

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

by Patricia Smith (no photo)


Finish date: 25.01.2026
Genre: poetry
Rating: A+++++++++++++++++++++
#National Book Award 2025 Poetry


Good News: This collection is a clear-eyed chronicle which shows us how issues of power, violence, race and gender are played out on a daily basis.

Good News: Patricia Smith is not only a poet, she is a witness:….never forget….never become indifferent (read the poems about the murder of Emmet Till through the eyes of his mother…powerful) Some poems are rooted in lived experience (youth, growing up, hurricane Katrina, reports of black males and their abuse of women)

Good News: Strong point: Writing...her humour, her lip and nerve. She never sugarcoats. (Poem: "Biting Back" about being a mother of teen-age son: “When squeezed I spit money”),

Good News: Strong point: defining the world she sees and letting the rest of us in on what things look like now.

Good News: Strong point: a journalist’s eye for detail…and a novelist’s ear for language.

Personal: Strong point: Reading very slowly...some poems take my breath away...and some were too upsetting to finish reading (black fathers killing their toddler as revenge on their x-wife). I'll try to read these 2-3 poems later when I feel mentally prepared for them. The book took me a month to read...a few poems at a time. Some books are like people....they turn up in your life when you need them. This is my book. While the many in the USA are trying to fathom what is going on this month in Minneapolis Minnesota, I found THE line in Ms. Smith's poem "Scars Poetica" (pg 332) that sums up all the tweets, podcasts, headlines, Insta videos:
"We kill without blinking, loathe without thought."

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether describing a childhood in Chicago, her love for her Daddy and frustration with her Mom, or the Tulsa Riot, September 11, Hurricane Katrina, or the Great Migration, the words flow, sizzle, and cut. A beautiful indictment. A lament of the rage and hatred which sucks our country dry of promise.

[Ally Ang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rigorous and devastating and rich and deeply rewarding. The formalist of her generation. I feel lucky to be on this earth at the same time as Patricia Smith.

[Michelle | musingsbymichelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Calling this now: one of my top reads this year.

[Renée · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anemone. I feel so seen. Yes for the way it sounds.

All of this was profond. Deeply lyrical, hard hitting and creatively woven.

[AK · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the privilege of hearing the poet read an excerpt of this work at the National Book Awards and it made me cry like a baby so I had to purchase the full book. Her words are so moving!

[Rhiley Jade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for the E-ARC! This E-ARC was sent to me in exchange for an honest review.

A wise and thoughtful look into being black in America from the author's youth to their current age. Some poems followed their struggle with motherhood and other's showed the perspective of prominent figures that died in the name of "justice". It was well put together and tore at my heart. I recommend if you're looking for a collection to get into political poetry!

[Dree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Patricia Smith's poetry, but I am not a fan of anthologies like this. I loved Unshuttered, but the selections here did not flow as well as the book itself. Also since these collected works span decades, her writing style obviously changes and grows with each collection. I am not enough of a critic to be able to follow those changes. I prefer works that flow.

I thought the selections from Blood Dazzler were excellent, and I now intend to read that collection.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

At best, I dabble in poetry. But I picked up this collection, with the intention of just reading a poem or two, to get a feel for it. I immediately got sucked into one section and couldn't put it down. Patricia Smith's poetry just speaks to me. These poems are easy to read, but harder to digest. The topics range from police murdering Black people to growing up to Motown. These are powerful and also, at times, really funny. I suspect I will be dipping into this collection for the foreseeable future.

ETA: Staff Pick 10/25

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five-star fabulous! This compilation of Smith’s new and selected poems is a work of consummate genius—a masterpiece of the first order. Smith is unmatched in her ability to illuminate the shadow aspects of American culture so that they can be seen, articulated, healed, and eventually purged from our collective consciousness. Smith specializes in probing America’s deepest emotional wounds, psychological traumas, and hidden struggles, forcing us to acknowledge, expose, and bring them into the light, thereby transforming pain into wisdom and right action—naps unleashed! Smith definitely makes the singing matter, and her words have grown to gospel in our hands.


“And then—it could have been
most anything, so many things can push
‘upstanding’ men much closer to the monsters that
they are—a numbing shove, a rifle wrenched
away, the flinging of a barb that names
a man much less than what he is, the gall
of those who will not lower their eyes of step
aside, so many things can make a man
decide in blood, to answer questions no
one’s asked with every form of fire.”
—from “The Storefronts Wore Their Names,” pp. 316-17

“See how we push on as enigma, the
free out loud, the audaciously unleashed, how slyly we can scan the sky—
all that were voltage and scatters of furious star—to realize that we
have been gifted an ancient grace.”
—from “The Stuff of Astounding,” p. 321

“I mourn the many poems that I failed
to write, and then the poems that I failed—
the poems I assumed would shove a life
back into life, unlatch a cage or turn
a thousand thirsty bullets back around,
revive a fallen daddy, shrink a war,
unreeling lines I thought could heal a thing,
slam shut a thing, reverse a thing or teach
an Annie Pearl to love her reckless child.
I grieve the lawless verses that fought back
and silenced me because I lacked the spine
required to know the tale they told was mine.
I trusted myself blind. I really thought
the words would grow to gospel in my hands.”
—from “70,” pp. 330-31


Favorite Poems:
LIFE ACCORDING TO MOTOWN (1991)
“What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl (For Those of You Aren’t)”
“Medusa”

BIG TOWNS, BIG TALK (1992)
“Annie Pearl Smith Discovers Moonlight”
“The Architect”

CLOSE TO DEATH (1993)
“Undertaker”

TEAHOUSE OF THE ALMIGHTY (2006)
“Building Nicole’s Mama”
“Listening at the Door”
“My Millions Fathers, Still Here Past”
“Map Rappin’”
“Scribe”
“Dream Dead Daddy Walking”
“Running for Aretha”
“When the Burning Begins”

BLOOD DAZZLER (2008)
“11 a.m., Wednesday, August 24, 2005”
“Man on the TV Say”
“What to Tweak”
“Ethel’s Sestina”
“34” (OMG)
“Siblings”

UNCOLLECTED (1990-2010)
“To the Woman, Not Trying to Fly, Who Fell with Her Legs Closed, Arms Pressed Against the Front of Her Body, While Primly Clutching Her Purse”
“Man, Roll Down the Window”
“Second Time Trying to Say Where My Son Was”

SHOULDA BEEN JIMI SAVANNAH (2012)
“How Mamas Begin Sometimes”
“Still Life with Toothpick”
“Keep Saying Heaven and It Will”
“Annie Pearl, Upward”
“Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah”
“An All-Purpose Product”
“13 Ways of Looking at 13”
“Thief of Tongues”
“Motown Crown”

INCENDIARY ART (2017)
“That Chile Emmett in That Casket”
“Emmett Till: Choose Your Own Adventure [196]”
“Incendiary Art: Los Angeles, 1992”
“Incendiary Art: Ferguson, 2014”
“The Five Stages of Drowning”
“When Black Men Drown Their Daughters”
“Blurred Quotient and Theory”
“Sagas of the Accidental Saint” !!!

UNSHUTTERED (2023)
1
4
31
42
“Unshuttered”

UNCOLLECTED (2010-2024)
“Double Shovel on a Line from MLK’s ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’”
“How to Find a Missing Black Woman”
“Naps Unleashed”
“Pandemics”
“The Price of the End of It”
“Salutations in Search Of”
“The Storefronts Wore Their Names”
“The Stuff of Astounding”
“To Little Black Girls, Risking Flower”

70
“70”
“Acknowledging”

[Sassy Sarah Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

This is a collection that takes so much of Patricia Smith's career. Decades of poetry to chronicle her expertise, vision, and lyrical cadence in her approach to capturing the spirit of the Black American poet. This is not an easy read. So much racism, police brutality, lynchings, murder, abuse of children, and devastation in the themes in many of the poems (which is what I personally expected from Smith, but a warning, I guess, to the poetry reader who doesn't like grit). I personally love grit, but I was overwhelmed by how big this collection is. It is too long and sometimes too much for me to grapple with and read. I was unsuccessful with reading this entire collection in February for the poetry book club I attend, but I listened to a large chunk of the audiobook and finished it a few days ago. I must say, Patricia Smith can read a poem like nobody's business. I was enraptured, and I think it helped me push through the poetry fatigue I was feeling in trying to conquer this book. That was definitely the wrong approach and mindset to have when tackling this mammoth of a collection, but I fear that is where my own mental headspace was in (for the good and the bad). My favorite section was the poems about Hurricane Katrina, which I survived and have memories of when I was only 8 years old. My second-grade teacher was actually placed after one teacher was fired, and was a Hurricane Katrina survivor whose school had been destroyed and was closed and irreparable. Patricia Smith is a definite powerhouse in the poetry genre, and I'm sorry it took me until 2026 to know her name, but I know it now and will be suggesting her poems from now on.

[Erica Naone · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an awe inspiring collection. I have never read this poet’s work before though it was clear from the first page that she is groundbreaking and has inspired many other poets I love. It is amazing to get a sense of the breadth of her career and virtuosic talent. She is raw, honest, and formally impeccable anytime she wants to be.

There are multiple displays of crowns of sonnets that are dripping with skill and power - like the baddest guitar solo you’ve ever heard. I love the Motown crown but there are others just as amazing.

Selections from Blood dazzler, a sequence of poems about Hurricane Katrina, were particularly stunning.

But I also loved (and was left breathless by) the loss and rage in incendiary art and the flights of fancy about photographs in unshuttered. This book does not let you off easy anywhere. You will confront racism writ large and small and death and injustice and the pains of being a woman and a mother, and the pain of having a mother.

I was especially moved by the poems about the poet’s mother, which form a sequence of their own within the book, and about her son, which will be all too familiar to anyone who has visited a loved one in jail.

I feel like I lived a lifetime reading this. I feel like I should have read it three more times. Not enough can be said about the ground covered here.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of new and selected poems by poetry-powerhouse, Patricia Smith.

from To the Woman, Not Trying to Fly, Who Fell with Her Legs Closed, Arms Pressed Against the Front of Her Body, While Primly Clutching Her Purse (September 11, 2001): "For poets, these are impossible days. / We have at our disposal every letter of every syllable / of every word every written or spoken in any language, / but when we attempted to conjure fly / we so often fall."

from Second Time Trying to Say Where My Son Was: "Looking down / the long, sorrowful row, I see that expectant hush repeated, / repeated. All those mothers wanting desperately to be there // but wishing they hadn't come. If only we'd stayed home, / letting the phone ring and ring and not picking up. We could / just keep staring from our own cells into the next dawn, / loving the disappeared, and waiting for our sons to rise."

from When Black Men Drown Their Daughters: "When black men drown, their daughters are fascinated with / the politics of water, how gorgeously a surface breaks / to receive, how it weeps so sanely shut."

[Alexandra Dav · Rating 4 out of 5]

M-au atras titlul și coperta, dar am rămas pentru poezii. A fost o lectură neașteptat de plăcută, deși a fost și răvășitoare în egală măsură.

Autoarea abordează o multitudine de teme și subiecte, însă o face într-un mod care se simte natural. N-am simțit nicio clipă că aș fi vrut o altă ordine pentru textele sale.
De asemenea, reușește să trezească o mulțime de emoții. Dacă uneori îmi fura un zâmbet datorită gândurilor superb scrise, alteori mă înfuriau tragediile descrise.
Mi-a deschis ochii și cu privire la traiul unor categorii de oameni, ceea ce mare lucru. Aveam impresia că și eu trăim cele povestite.
Am colorat și o mulțime de versuri. Cu siguranță voi mai citi și altceva scris de autoare. Stilul său e extrem de plăcut și de puternic în același timp.
Am scăzut o steluță pentru că pur și simplu n-am înțeles unele poezii, care ajungeau inevitabil să fie citite mult mai greu decât celelalte. De asemenea, aș zice că e puțin cam lung volumul.

E abia primul titlu citit de la autoare, dar cu siguranță nu va fi și ultimul.

[Robert Yokoyama · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems are fun thought provoking and challenging. My favorite poem is "Motown Crown". This poem honors the music of Motown singers like Smokey Robinson and Diana Ross. I also love the poems dedicated to Little Richard and John Lee Hooker. These poems introduce me to classic soul and blues music respectively. Smith does not shy away from heavier subjects in her poems. I love the poem dedicated to the lynching of Emmet Till. She follows a similar theme by including poems about the epidemic of gun violence. These poems are sad, but they represent a reality of how dangerous our country has become.

I enjoy the challenge of understanding the structure of two specific kinds of poems in this book. They are the sestina poem and the tanka poem. The sestina poem has 39 lines with repeating words. The tanka is a Japanese poem with a specific number of syllables. I love learning about the different structure of poems, and I will try to write my own sestina and tanka by studying the examples in this book.

[Amelia.S · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Intentions of Thunder by Patricia Smith is a masterful celebration of voice, emotion, and lived experience. This collection, spanning new and selected poems, showcases Smith’s extraordinary ability to capture the rawness of history, the intimacy of personal struggle, and the expansive possibilities of the future. Each poem resonates with precision and power, blending lyrical beauty with incisive social insight.

What stands out is Smith’s unparalleled command of rhythm, voice, and perspective. She moves effortlessly between meditative reflection and volcanic intensity, allowing readers to feel the pulse of human experience in its most honest and transformative form. The Intentions of Thunder is both a testament to the necessity of poetry and a radiant affirmation of Smith’s essential voice in contemporary literature.

[Christa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"We will not be beholding or silent as we're gifted a sliver of the America we built-because we own the
stink and hallelujah of it, its burden and snarl, its bodacious black and otherwise". Hands down, favorite moment of this book.

Best poetry book I've read in a long, long time. This is something you have to digest over days, maybe even weeks. Not just because it can be heavy, but because each poem is battling something so different.

There were a few poems I didn't quite get as the language didn't quite resonate for me. And I am sucker for a short poem (this book is not populated with those lol), but I think the experience as a whole really outweighs those things. Patricia has been a favorite of mine since I was in high school and will continue to be. Her poems are relevant and challenging, while also being accessible and a great entrance point for new poetry readers. 5/5

[Stuart Jennings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading this book...I took a gander at the various reviews...quite eye-opening! ;)

So with an open heart...and one that doesn't necessarily enjoy poetry...I dove in...

And the amazement I felt reading this...Patricia Smith is just an overwhelming contemporary in this 'poetry' realm...

I've read various types of poetry over the years...yet this type...political...has a feel like none other...it's warming, insulting, charming, incisive...yet most of all...Brilliant!

Her poetry has got to be the most 'rewarding' I've ever read...and like I said...I've read quite a lot...

Do yourself a favor and take a look and her writing...and I bet you'll be just amazed also...;)

Highly Recommended!

[Marilyn]

On 31 March 2026, I heard Patricia Smith speak about writing and poetry and then speak some of her poems. She was inspiring. I wanted to comment when she'd finished "How did you know that's exactly how my daughter, Alissa, and I felt in 2007 when we ran through the Louvre to see the "Mona Lisa"? She wrote this poem in 1991. She captured my feelings precisely. She's amazing.

And "Doin' the Louvre" is in this book. Yay!

In the front of the book, she lists her teachers: Gwendolyn Brooks 1917-2000), Wanda Coleman (1946-2013), Kwame Dawes (born 1962 in Ghana-Present), Annie Finch (1956-Present), Nikky Finney (1957-Present) , Terrance Hayes (1971-Present) , Marc Smith (1949-Present) , and "Fire and Rain" James Taylor 1948-Present).

Copy the pages listed on the postit note.

[Jessie Brandwein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to the author Patricia Smith, publisher Scribner, and Goodreads for the ARC I received through a Goodreads giveaway.

This book of poetry was beautiful, provocative, and often heart-wrenching. The works span decades, with some specific to the author’s life and family and some based on historic and current events - but all feel equally personal. Despite many stories of pain and violence, there is an undertone to the entire book of Black joy and resilience.

I recommend this wholeheartedly to anyone interested in political poetry. I’m normally someone who flies through books in a couple days, but I spent nearly 6 weeks reading this. This is poetry you will want to sit with.

[Katie Kemple · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easily the best book I've read this year. In THE INTENSIONS OF THUNDER, Patricia Smith's verse shouts from the page. Her voice and storytelling perfected over decades, to read her poems, is to hear her read them to you. In an era when short, lyric work has risen in popularity and poems that are easy to share quickly online take the stage... I'm telling you, these long poems (in a very long book) are worthy of your time and attention. THE INTENSIONS OF THUNDER provide a masterclass in poetry - how to turn a headline into heartbreaking verse; how to mold the past into a time capsule; how to capture the voice of a place, era, country.