RaveLos Angeles Review of BooksPerhaps this is one of Smith’s grandest talents: diving into the pool of a poem at one angle (for example, \'my president,\' in the singular sense) only to emerge in a new framework (the multitudes of presidents) that makes us see poetry and its meanings anew ... Homie is full of humor and hugs, it’s also heckled by haunts, alive and dead ... profound poetics ... In its cutting compassion, Homie is as much a celebration of loved ones’ lives as it is a lament for their loss, equally a war cry for kinship and the burial dirge after the battle. The collections rings as a heartfelt call to love our beloveds as if they’ll be gone tomorrow, because they just might be. Yet Smith teaches us that one thing is still certain for today: in our homies, despite our most harrowing of hurts, we can always find the hope of healing.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay[/caption]
