RaveThe RumpusThough \'summer, somewhere\' is about the afterlife, the rest of Don’t Call Us Dead is about life and death on earth. Again, the central figure is the body: the black body, the queer body, the safe body, the sick body, the dead body. These poems show us that there are things other than violence that kill ... What is so extraordinary about this collection is its lyricism, its humanity, and its urgency ... The brave nature of these poems is not only in calling out a country for its lack of empathy, but also in the very visceral way that sex, disease, and death are used to confront the reader ...an historical commentary, a scientific document, a personal narrative, and a formal poetics ... Smith uses every tool of craft at a poet’s disposal to deliver powerful, urgent, deliberate, crucial poems. Don’t miss this book.
