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Homie
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Homie is Danez Smith’s magnificent anthem about the saving grace of friendship. Rooted in the loss of one of Smith’s close friends, this book comes out of the search for joy and intimacy within a nation where both can seem scarce and getting scarcer. In poems of rare power and generosity, Smith acknowledges that in a country overrun by violence, xenophobia, and disparity,
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Homie (but really that isn't this book's title), is a love letter to friendship, the push and pull of it, the give and take, the good and bad. So many of these poems are unexpectedly moving. Warm. Smith plays with form in several poems. They bring an incredible level of depth and craft to writing about the friends we can't live without, the friends who are just passing through our lives, the differences that create borders between us, the things we try to make peace with so we might survive.
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Let me catch my breath first.
Danez Smith’s third book is an offering to friendship, a reckoning of tensions that must be fought and resisted on a daily basis, and an observation of the large and small kindnesses that are necessary for life. This book exemplifies the personal as political, and the political as personal, with poems that simultaneously engage racism, xenophobia, violence, and more, while calling upon friends as a means of crossing into utopia. These poems are incantatory in the sense they are able to show the
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I was at two stars, but I'm giving it three for one poem that made the torture of reading worthwhile.
I subscribed to the Rumpus' poetry book of the month club and I have a question for those at Rumpus. Are all current poets getting published LGBTQ, minorities, women, or some combination of the three? The requisite for getting the poems in front of people seems to be some sort of political litmus test. The problem with litmus tests like this is that the poems lack universality and verisimilitude, ...more
I subscribed to the Rumpus' poetry book of the month club and I have a question for those at Rumpus. Are all current poets getting published LGBTQ, minorities, women, or some combination of the three? The requisite for getting the poems in front of people seems to be some sort of political litmus test. The problem with litmus tests like this is that the poems lack universality and verisimilitude, ...more
i heart black poets, black poetry. Deep inside things flowing for decades, symbiotic and shouting. Needing to be heard, needing to teach their blood runs wet, warm and copper just the same as yours. A depth of understanding i'll never know, but keep trying. This book had so much.
I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions are my own.
To no one's surprise, I *love* this collection. Danez Smith is a high queen of poetry as far as I'm concerned. They have such fire in their lines, such incandescence in their stanzas, such breathtaking imagery and syntax that it's kind of hard to write anything coherent about how much I love their poetry. So instead I'll just point out a few thing I noticed that I liked:
-Recurring images of summer, trees, ...more
To no one's surprise, I *love* this collection. Danez Smith is a high queen of poetry as far as I'm concerned. They have such fire in their lines, such incandescence in their stanzas, such breathtaking imagery and syntax that it's kind of hard to write anything coherent about how much I love their poetry. So instead I'll just point out a few thing I noticed that I liked:
-Recurring images of summer, trees, ...more
Jan 24, 2020
ak
added it
beautiful poetry about grief and friendship (and Blackness specifically, which Danez says from the very first page)
Danez Smith has words more full of fireworks that anything else and uses their glow to light up all of the mundanities and the extremes of friendship. Hope is the doctrine of this book, but it’s not an ignorant hope at all; it’s a hope educated by the power of platonic intimacy to redeem. This collection is a must-read.
Absolutely amazing.
These exuberant poems celebrate survival, loss, love, difference, but central to the entire collection is the life-preserving force of friendship. To be known and to know others is a privilege and a gift. Smith plays with form and language in such a vibrant way that reveals an edge of urgency just beneath the skin. This is also a collection that rattles the way we use language and recognize each other. Some words are not for everyone; the book’s titles speak to this point. There’s so much here
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Homie—— feels like home.
feels like they was watching me
with my uncles. with my aunts.
with my struggles. with my home girls.
in my real world.
feels like living next door to my cousins
all through elementary school.
Like when I use to knock on their door
to come play outside.
so familiar.
like I ain’t by myself.
like they saw it too.
like they tell me the truth.
like a sign that says, “no lies here”.
-Duuna D.
S/n: yes I wrote my review as a poem.
feels like they was watching me
with my uncles. with my aunts.
with my struggles. with my home girls.
in my real world.
feels like living next door to my cousins
all through elementary school.
Like when I use to knock on their door
to come play outside.
so familiar.
like I ain’t by myself.
like they saw it too.
like they tell me the truth.
like a sign that says, “no lies here”.
-Duuna D.
S/n: yes I wrote my review as a poem.
HOMIE packs a lyrical punch with repetition that bounces off reminding me of conversations, internal thoughts, and many a reflection. I re-read and re-read every single poem to further digest because it deserves to be savored. Some favorites include: "Shout out to my n****s in Mexico" and "trees!" and "Acknowledgments."
I don't know if I can adequately describe this book other than fucking beautiful. I think I'm going to immediately re-read it and make it a really read. The way my chest and stomach felt during many oh these poems made it feel like the big drop on a rollercoaster and I loved it.
A searing testament to friendship that made me grateful someone saw it as spiritual and religious. the poet loves their friends and they are pensive about death and poverty and even overcome with joy. It’s unlike anything I’ve read before.
I had heard that the published title was not the true title and I am delighted to find this was completely factual. Immediately you are swept up into this. It's ambitious and the author deserves endless praise.
“what animorph did you want to be? i wanted to be the boy who turned into the bird limp in the dog’s wet mouth, holding me toward his human saying, i made this for you.”
What a knockout. Danez Smith knows how to write survival in a way that brings me back to their poems over and over again.
Fucking great, obviously.
Glorious. Devastating. Beautiful. Trees to friends, intimate, funny & gorgeous. We are lucky.
Full review at http://www.thepoetryquestion.com, live Monday, November 25.
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Danez Smith is the author of [insert] boy (2014, YesYes Books), a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award and the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Their 2nd collection will be published by Graywolf Press in 2017. Their work has published & featured widely including in Poetry Magazine, Beloit Poetry Journal, Buzzfeed, Blavity, & Ploughshares. They are a 2014
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![[insert] boy](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1419744530l/24137295._SX98_.jpg "[insert] boy")
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“what animorph did you want to be? i wanted to be the boy who turned into the bird limp in the dog’s wet mouth, holding me toward his human saying, i made this for you.”
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