"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." --

Life according to Motown,

1991.

What it's like to be a Black girl (for those of you who aren't) -- Medusa -- Your man -- The awakening -- Sweet daddy -- Big towns, big talk,

1992.

Annie Pearl Smith discovers moonlight -- Doin' the Louvre -- Biting back -- The architect -- Skinhead -- In the ultimate blues bar -- Olive Oyl talks to People magazine -- Chinese cucumbers -- Close to death,

1993.

Edward or Edwin -- Terrell's take on things -- Daddy braids my hair 1962 -- The room with the star -- Undertaker -- A poem for the man who shot my father -- The dark magicians -- In his room. With him gone. -- Spinning 'til you get dizzy -- A found poem -- Reconstruction -- Teahouse of the almighty,

2006.

Building Nicole's mama -- Giving birth to soldiers -- The world won't wait -- Listening at the door -- My million fathers, still here past -- How to be a lecherous little old Black man and make lots of money -- Map rappin' -- Scribe -- What you pray toward -- Dream dead daddy walking -- Teahouse of the almighty -- Running for Aretha -- When the burning begins -- Blood dazzler,

2008.

Prologue - and then she owns you -- 5 p.m., Tuesday, August 23, 2005 -- 11 a.m., Wednesday, August 24, 2005 -- 5 p.m., Thursday, August 25, 2005 -- 7 p.m., Thursday, August 25, 2005 -- Man on the TV say -- Won't be but a minute -- 8 a.m., Sunday, August 28, 2005 -- The dawn of Luther B's best day -- 10:30 a.m., Sunday, August 28, 2005 -- Luther B rides out the storm -- What to tweak -- The president flies over -- Tankas -- Ethel's sestina -- 34 -- Buried -- Luther B ascends -- Siblings -- Uncollected,

1990-2010.

First time trying to say where my son was -- The blood sonnets -- It creeps back in -- The episode where daddy dies - but, again, doesn't -- 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 the window down! -- Post-racial -- 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 -- Fixing on the next star -- Annie Pearl, upward -- Shoulda been Jimi Savannah -- A colored girl will slice you if you talk wrong about Motown -- Tavern. Tavern. Church. Shuttered tavern, -- An all-purpose product -- Because -- To keep from saying dead -- 13 ways of looking at 13 -- Hip-hop ghazal -- Thief of tongues -- Motown crown -- Incendiary art,

2017.

That chile Emmett in that casket -- Incendiary art -- Emmett Till : choose your own adventure -- Incendiary art : Birmingham, 1963 -- Emmett Till : choose your own adventure -- Hey, who you got in here? -- Incendiary art : Los Angeles, 1992 -- Black, poured directly into the wound -- Mammy Two-Shoes, rightful owner of Tom, addresses the lady of the house -- Incendiary art : Ferguson, 2014 -- XXXL -- Emmett Till : choose your own adventure -- The five stages of drowning -- When Black men drown their daughters -- Blurred quotient and theory -- Sagas of the accidental saint -- The first 23 minutes of the first day without -- And he stays dead -- Emmett Till : choose your own adventure -- Incendiary art : the body -- Unshuttered,

2023.

263 -- 265 -- 267 -- 269 -- 271 -- 273 -- 275 -- 277 -- 279 -- Unshuttered -- Uncollected,

2010-2024.

Double shovel on a line from MLK's "Letter from a Birmingham jail" -- How to find a missing Black woman -- Letter from Walpole -- Nap unleashed -- Pandemics -- Practice standing unleashed and clean -- 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 -- What daughters come down to -- 70. 70 -- Scars poetica -- acknowledging