Junious Ward

An undeniable pivot point in U.S. History was the sequence of events needed in order to encourage “Americans” to side with the growing movement to separate from British rule. The most successful tactics often included persuasive writing and oration aimed at the average person, appealing to reason and/or capitalizing on fear.

When the world shakes, when powerful people dominate to bolster self-interest, when the political landscape seems to edge ever closer toward a dystopian present, in moments when language somehow fails us, we look to the poets for a guiding light. Marissa Davis’s full length debut, End of Empire, offers us poems that arch and ache toward hope.

Grief is a common thing to experience and a difficult thing to write—the vulnerability and honesty it takes to still its convulsions, take a snapshot of a time-frozen scene, and then edit for public consumption without photoshopping out the red-eye or less desirable angles is, at the least, a generous act that embodies what poetry, at its best, can accomplish. Christian J.