Homie Poems
Reviews
there’s a reason danez smith is one of my favorite poets of all time & in whatever world i had to justify that, i would just hand anyone who doubts this book
Violent both in its anger and beauty.
Favorites:
- "i'm going back to Minnesota where sadness makes sense"
- "the flower who bloomed thru the fence in grandmama's yard"
- "in lieu of a poem, i'd like to say"
- "say it with your whole black mouth"
- "for Andrew"
- "depression food"
- "my poems"
- "trees!"
- "acknowledgements"
- "saw a video of a gang of bees swarming a hornet who killed their bee-homie so i called to say i love you"
I loved it! Everything about this was excellent. It's raw and realistic. I found myself saying "yeah" and laughing and then 'yeah" and lowering my head. I've had some of the same experiences and could relate to the happiness and sadness of each poem. Anyway, I love the way Smith weaves their words together and makes you feel as if your one this journey with them as they put two and two together. I dont know if that makes sense. Anyway, I highly recommend ♥
Can’t remember the last time I’ve read a book of poetry like this. Left me gutted, especially the poems about suicide. I am buying a copy so I can come back and be rent again.
hard to read at times because of how heavy the subject matter is but so, so beautiful. some books just feel like talking to an old friend
scooby doo was trying to tell us something when every time that monster mask got snatched off it was a greedy white dude. this book is just so beautifully written and says so many things that deserve to be heard. just wow.
Highlights
with yo ugly ass
at the end of the world,
let there be you
my world
-"acknowledgements"
& how many times have you
loved me without my asking?
how often have i loved a thing
because you loved it?
including me
-"acknowledgements"
o the horrid friends who were
just ships harboring me to you
-"acknowledgements"
deliver us into an axeless world!
sweet mother of chlorophyll & melanin!
branch & braid! dogwood & all my dawgs!
-"trees!"
if i could
be a tree, i’d know God is real.
-"trees!"
i want to say something without saying it
but there’s no time.
-"waiting on you to die so i can be myself"
i learn this best from the snake angulating
out of her pork-rind dress. i crawl out of myself
into myself, take refuge where i flee.
-"waiting on you to die so i can be myself"
the b in debt is a silent black trapped
-"C.R.E.A.M."
if i went to jail i’d live rent free but there is no way to avoid making white people richer
a prison is a plantation made of stone & steel
-"C.R.E.A.M."
as he empties inside my empty
-"depression food"
what advice do the drowned have for the burned?
what gossip is there between the hanged & the buried?
-"what was said at the bus stop"
so many white people are alive
because we know how to control ourselves.
-"say it with your whole black mouth"
the gay
agenda made
CatDog to
offer your
child’s gender
to their seven-
headed god.
-"dogs!"
have you ever stood on a frozen lake, California?
the sun above you, the snow & stalled sea—a field of mirror
all demanding to be the sun, everything around you
is light & it’s gorgeous & if you stay too long it will kill you.
it’s so sad, you know? you’re the only warm thing for miles
the only thing that can’t shine.
-"i'm going back to Minnesota where sadness makes sense"
at least in this land where the trees always bear green.
i know something that doesn’t die can’t be beautiful.
-"i'm going back to Minnesota where sadness makes sense"
curls tight
as pinky swears,
-"my president"
This book appears on the shelf 2015 reads
This book appears on the shelf historical-fiction-to-read
This book appears on the shelf Theology
