Incendiary Art
Poems
by Patricia Smith
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Pub Date 15 Feb 2017 | Archive Date 8 Jul 2020
Northwestern University Press | Triquarterly
Description
One of the most magnetic and esteemed poets in today’s literary landscape, Patricia Smith fearlessly confronts the tyranny against the black male body and the tenacious grief of mothers in her compelling new collection, Incendiary Art. She writes an exhaustive lament for mothers of the "dark magicians," and revisits the devastating murder of Emmett Till.
These dynamic sequences serve as a backdrop for present-day racial calamities and calls for resistance. Smith embraces elaborate and eloquent language— "her gorgeous fallen son a horrid hidden / rot. Her tiny hand starts crushing roses—one by one / by one she wrecks the casket’s spray. It’s how she / mourns—a mother, still, despite the roar of thorns"— as she sharpens her unerring focus on incidents of national mayhem and mourning.
Smith envisions, reenvisions, and ultimately reinvents the role of witness with an incendiary fusion of forms, including prose poems, ghazals, sestinas, and sonnets. With poems impossible to turn away from, one of America’s most electrifying writers reveals what is frightening, and what is revelatory, about history.
Advance Praise
"Patricia is one of the poets writing today that I most deeply admire. Her work is always timely, powerful, necessary, and at turns heartbreaking."
—Natasha Trethewey, author of Thrall: Poems
“Patricia Smith’s moving collection of elegies combines the act of witness with the delights of lyric poetry, intervening with master narratives of history, or sociology, to rescue the suffering subject. The rich sonic texture of the work enables the subtle modulations of mordant wit, anger, and grief throughout the collection, where feeling is tuned by assonance and consonance.” —Averill Curdy, editor, The Longman Anthology of Poetry
“As with Smith’s previous books, one encounters an urgent voice on the page that is exuberant, sharp, and questing in its search for understanding of the fatalities that besiege black life in America. The imaginative qualities of these poems and others are what make them captivating. She is a poet of immense originality, and these poems are a testament to her powers.” —Major Jackson, author of Roll Deep and Leaving Saturn: Poems
Marketing Plan
Among other appearances, Smith will be a featured speaker at AWP in Washington, DC, February 8-11.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Paperback |
| ISBN | 9780810134331 |
| PRICE | US$18.95 (USD) |
| PAGES | 112 |
