Homie
Poems
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4.6 • 16 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
FINALIST FOR THE 2020 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR POETRY
FINALIST FOR THE 2021 NAACP IMAGE AWARD FOR POETRY
Danez Smith is our president
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, and in a body defined by race, queerness, and diagnosis, it can be hard to survive, even harder to remember reasons for living. But then the phone lights up, or a shout comes up to the window, and family—blood and chosen—arrives with just the right food and some redemption. Part friendship diary, part bright elegy, part war cry, Homie is the exuberant new book written for Danez and for Danez’s friends and for you and for yours.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Smith (Don't Call Us Dead) presents an electrifying, unabashedly queer ode to friendship and community in their exuberant and mournful second collection. Smith alternates colloquial and lofty language, often within the same poem, and eschews most punctuation and grammatical strictures. In "ode to gold teeth," the poet writes of their grandfather, "gold gate of grandpa's holler/ midas touch his blue hum/ honeymetal perfuming prayers," later referring to him as the "OG of the gin sermon & front-porch pulpit." These poems are a celebration of black culture and experience, and a condemnation of white supremacy and its effect; in "dogs!," Smith excoriates racist dehumanization: "i too been called boy & expected/ to come, heel." In "sometimes i wish i felt the side effects," Smith explores conflicting feelings related to an HIV diagnosis simultaneous devastation and relief ("it felt like i got it out the way, to finally know it"), acceptance, and shame ("i braved the stupidest ocean. a man. i waded in his stupid waters"). The collection's final poem, "acknowledgments," is a beautiful love poem to a best friend, one that is as heartfelt as it is quotable: "if luck calls your name, we split the pot/ & if you wither, surely i rot." Smith is a visionary polyglot with a fearless voice.
