Intentions of Thunder

Patricia Smith is the author of ten books of poetry, including The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems (Scribner, USA, 2025; Bloodaxe Books, UK, 2026), a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. This draws upon previous collections including Unshuttered (2023); Incendiary Art (Triquarterly, USA, 2017; Bloodaxe Books, UK, 2019), winner of the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the 2018 NAACP Image Award, and a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize; Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah (2012), winner of the Lenore Marshall Prize from the Academy of American Poets; Blood Dazzler (2008), a National Book Award finalist; Teahouse of the Almighty (2006); Close to Death (1993); Big Towns Big Talk (1992); and Life According to Motown (1991). Her other books include Gotta Go, Gotta Flow, a collaboration with award-winning Chicago photographer Michael Abramson; the children's book Janna and the Kings and the history Africans in America, a companion book to the award-winning PBS series. She co-edited The Golden Shovel Anthology – New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks and edited the crime fiction anthology Staten Island Noir. She is a Guggenheim fellow, a Civitellian, a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient, a finalist for the Neustadt Prize, a two-time winner of the Pushcart Prize, a former fellow at both Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony, and a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, the most successful poet in the competition’s history. Patricia is a professor at the College of Staten Island and in the MFA program at Sierra Nevada College, as well as an instructor at the annual VONA residency and in the Vermont College of Fine Arts Postgraduate Residency Program. Patricia Smith was the subject of the BBC Radio 4 feature Patricia Smith: Gwendolyn's Heir broadcast in 2020.

Patricia Smith is the greatest living poet. Every book is better than the last.

• Life According to Motown (1991)What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl (For Those of You Who Aren’t) 3Medusa 4Your Man 6The Awakening 8Sweet Daddy 10Big Towns, Big Talk (1992)Annie Pearl Smith Discovers Moonlight 15Doin’ the Louvre 18Biting Back 21The Architect 23Skinhead 25In the Ultimate Blues Bar 28Olive Oyl Talks to People Magazine 31Chinese Cucumbers 36Close to Death (1993)Edward or Edwin 41Terrell’s Take on Things 44Daddy Braids My Hair 1962 46The Room with the Star 48Undertaker 51A Poem for the Man Who Shot My Father 54The Dark Magicians 56In His Room. With Him Gone. 57Spinning ’Til You Get Dizzy 58A Found Poem 61Reconstruction 62Teahouse of the Almighty (2006)Building Nicole’s Mama 65Giving Birth to Soldiers 68The World Won’t Wait 69Listening at the Door 70My Million Fathers, Still Here Past 71How to Be a Lecherous Lile Old Black Man and Make Lots of Money 73Map Rappin’ 74Scribe 78What You Pray Toward 81Dream Dead Daddy Walking 83Teahouse of the Almighty 84Running for Aretha 86When the Burning Begins 88Blood Dazzler (2008)Prologue—And Then She Owns You 935 p.m., Tuesday, August 23, 2005 9511 a.m., Wednesday, August 24, 2005 965 p.m., Thursday, August 25, 2005 977 p.m., Thursday, August 25, 2005 98Man on the TV Say 99Won’t Be but a Minute 1008 a.m., Sunday, August 28, 2005 101The Dawn of Luther B’s Best Day 10210:30 a.m., Sunday, August 28, 2005 103Luther B Rides Out the Storm 104What to Tweak 105The President Flies Over 109Tankas 110Ethel’s Sestina 11234 114Buried 122Luther B Ascends 124Siblings 125Uncollected 1990–2010First Time Trying to Say Where My Son Was 129The Blood Sonnets 134It Creeps Back In 136The Episode Where Daddy Dies—but, Again, Doesn’t 137To 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 139Man, Roll the Window Down! 141Post-Racial 143Second Time Trying to Say Where My Son Was 144Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah (2012)How Mamas Begin Sometimes 151Still Life with Toothpick 152Keep Saying Heaven and It Will 153Fixing on the Next Star 154Annie Pearl, Upward 155Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah 157A Colored Girl Will Slice You If You Talk Wrong About Motown 159Tavern. Tavern. Church. Shu!ered tavern, 161An All-Purpose Product 163Because 166To Keep from Saying Dead 16813 Ways of Looking at 13 171Hip-Hop Ghazal 177Thief of Tongues 178Motown Crown 181Incendiary Art (2017)That Chile Emmett in That Casket 191Incendiary Art 193Emme! Till: Choose Your Own Adventure 194Incendiary Art: Birmingham, 1963 195Emme! Till: Choose Your Own Adventure 196Hey, who you got in here? 197Incendiary Art: Los Angeles, 1992 199Black, Poured Directly into the Wound 201Mammy Two-Shoes, Rightful Owner of Tom, Addresses the Lady of the House 203Incendiary Art: Ferguson, 2014 206XXXL 208Emmett Till: Choose Your Own Adventure 209The Five Stages of Drowning 210When Black Men Drown Their Daughters 216Blurred Quotient and Theory 218Sagas of the Accidental Saint 220The First 23 Minutes of the First Day Without 256And He Stays Dead 257Emmett Till: Choose Your Own Adventure 258Incendiary Art: The Body 259Unshuttered (2023)1 2634 2658 26713 26915 27116 27331 27534 27742 279Unshuttered 280Uncollected 2010–2024Double Shovel on a Line from MLK’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” 285How to Find a Missing Black Woman 287Letter from Walpole 289Nap Unleashed 294Pandemics 301Practice Standing Unleashed and Clean 303The Price of the End of It 305Salutations in Search Of 307The Storefronts Wore Their Names 314The Stuff of Astounding 321To Little Black Girls, Risking Flower 323What Daughters Come Down To 3257070 329Scars Poetica 332Acknowledgements 335