Homie: Poems

Danez will have you rolling laughing and in tears from one poem to the next. Your head will spin, and these poems will get stuck in your mind and heart. Sometimes when I'm outside, for example, I just hear Danez's voice in my head exclaiming: "Trees!" This is essential stuff. Thank you Danez. You are a gift and your poems are life.

For most of my life I didn’t pay much attention to this world, but now I follow the work the brilliant Danez Smith pretty closely. This new book from Smith is perhaps even better then Don’t Call Us Dead. I found myself saying “wow” out loud at the end of one of the poems here. Gorgeous language, gut-wrenching honesty and style approachable to a non-expert like me. Smith moves from the playful to the heartbreaking, sometimes in a single poem. Even if contemporary poetry isn’t really your thing, Smith’s is a voice worth hearing.

Danez Smith is nothing short of magic. From the second I saw the bright neon cover and the disclaimed about the title on the next page, I knew this book was something special. Smith‘s play with form is incredible, their language is evocative, and they can craft poems part-charm and part-heartbreak with ease. This book made me laugh, cry, and think deeply about the topics presented. I would recommend this to everyone.

This astonishing collection never flags. Its inventive colloquial sometimes made-up language and percussive rhythms are deliciously exhausting. Rage-flecked (or maybe drenched) but overwhelmed with love for the poets’ homies (the poet uses a different word), the poems treat sex, suicide, disease, poetry as weapon, gaybashing, farts, cops, and a host of other topics currently raw in America but forever raw in the narrator’s consciousness. It has particular resonance in the nation’s unrest and rage after the killing of George Floyd.

Where do I even begin? This book was gave me a slightly different perspective compared to how I usually view poetry, but that's definitely a GOOD thing. It was so raw and authentic. I enjoyed every moment of my reading.

A hugely powerful collection of poetry that impacted the way I see race, love, the world. Amazing language and softness throughout. Thank you.

Good stuff. Good stuff. Good stuff.Great read.Great read.Great read.Loved it. Loved it. Loved it.More please.

An amazing collection of poems about black friendship.