REPRISE

Marrero explores authoritarianism, mass delusion, and cultural decay in this collection of political poetry.

Across 11 poems, the book’s speaker both observes and mourns the death of democracy, the spread of misinformation, and how ordinary people get swept up in dangerous ideologies. The poet opens with the titular poem, inspired by W. H. Auden’s “September 1, 1939.” Like Auden, the speaker is stationed at a dive bar, “where my glum double drank on / this date,” contemplating the “tragedy” of modern times. “Foreboding” compares fear to “corrosive sparks” that fall over a “frantic and frightened” world. “A Star Is Born” describes the rise to power of Joseph Goebbels, “Minister of Propaganda, / arbiter of taste and truth,” who proclaimed that the repetition of a lie will eventually lead to people believing it. Public affairs and personal lives alike are upended by an unhinged, narcissistic leader in “Psychopathic God.” Followers honor this maniac with “blind loyalty,” going so far as to sacrifice their own lives and liberty, in “Acolyte Credo.” Soon, a grandiose plan for a “master race” solidifies, demanding “whole new worlds to command and / exploit” in “Diktat.” The author ends the book with “Mass Resignation,” asking, “Is this the model / of unenlightened order / we strive to emulate?” In this timely book, Marrero uses unsettling historical references, including Hitler’s rise to power and the propaganda of Nazi Germany, as cautionary tales for the present. The poet paints a vivid­, if grim, picture of the consequences of collective amnesia, writing how it “keeps the fires kindled / for the next generation to pass the legacy.” Sensory descriptions like that of the “dense cigarette fumes” [9] of a watering hole ground the ideas in physical space. The language can be considered overwrought or entirely apt in lines like, “Hordes kin of the incendiaries and bigots / Yeats decried / pack the Platz, hail the madcap cant / prescribed today.”

An urgent interrogation of historical and political horrors.