The Intentions of Thunder

“Patricia Smith is the greatest living poet. Every book is better than the last.” —Danez Smith, The Guardian



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.

PATRICIA SMITH, winner of the 2021 Poetry Foundation Ruth Lilly Award for Lifetime Achievement, is the author of eight critically acknowledged volumes of poetry, including Incendiary Art (TriQuarterly Books), winner of the 2018 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, the 2017 Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the 2018 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in the poetry category, and finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; in 2008, her book Blood Dazzler was a finalist for the National Book Award. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Guggenheim Fellow, a Civitella Ranieri Fellow, a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient, a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, and a four-time individual champion of the National Poetry Slam, Smith is a distinguished professor at the City University of New York and visiting professor of creative writing in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University.

• Publisher: Scribner (September 30, 2025)
• Language: English
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• ISBN-13: 9781668055724
• Item Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• BISAC Categories: Poetry