Calling a Wolf a Wolf

In "Heritage," a fierce poem dedicated to an Iranian woman executed for killing the man attempting to rape her, award-winning poet Akbar proclaims, "in books love can be war-ending/…in life we hold love up to the light/ to marvel at its impotence." Yet if real-life love is disappointing ("The things I've thought I've loved/ could sink an ocean liner"), Akbar proves what books can do in his exceptional debut, which brings us along on his struggle with addiction, a dangerous comfort and soul-eating monster he addresses boldly ("thinking if I called a wolf a wolf I might dull its fangs"). His work stands out among literature on the subject for a refreshingly unshowy honesty; Akbar runs full tilt emotionally but is never self-indulgent. These poems find the speaker poised between life's clatter and rattle, wanting to retreat ("so much/ of being alive is breaking") yet hungering for more ("I'm told what seems like joy/ is often joy"). Indeed, despite his acknowledged disillusion and his failings ("my whole life I answered every cry for help with a pour"), he has loved, and an electric current runs through the collection that keeps reader and writer going.