END OF EMPIRE Penguin Poets

Marissa Davis's poems are on the difficult side. Her reading of them is clear, but her idiosyncratic syntax often makes the work hard to follow. The lack of variation in her delivery doesn't make listening any easier. The poems are good, if somewhat limited in range of subject matter, but they're just too complex for even a careful listener to parse in any detail at first. Nonetheless, anyone interested in contemporary Black poetry may want to check it out. Those who are intrigued by this audio version may want to get the print edition to pursue their investigation in greater depth. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2025, Portland, Maine [Published: JUNE 2025]