Another Last Call: Poems on Addiction and Deliverance

Akbar (Pilgrim Bell) and Lewis (Space Struck) follow up Sarabande’s 1997 anthology Last Call with a dazzling new volume showcasing poems on addiction and recovery by Jericho Brown, Ada Limón, Diane Seuss, Ocean Vuong, and others. The affecting introduction makes strikingly clear the stakes of forming a new identity as a sober person, and the role that community and poetry might play in such efforts: “Language is a place to go as the new self forms, a safe place to store a body and mind.” In the opening poem, “Running,” Joy Harjo writes: “Last call./ We’ve had it with history, we who look for vision here/ In the Indian and poetry bar, somewhere/ To the left of Hell.” Many of these pieces look beyond the speaker’s own experience of addiction to reflect on that of a loved one (“My Brother Stole Every Spoon in the House” by Steven Espada opens: “So we don’t eat soup anymore”). These are vital works of witness and redemption. (Oct.)