Empires of the Everyday: Poems

by Anna Lee-Popham

An ambitious and wholly original poetry collection that examines the ways that life is confined and sometimes defined by the city and the ubiquity and invisibility of state violence.

The poems in Empires of the Everyda y give voice to the many “you” who move through a city—one that resembles many modern cities—where plywood shelters are demolished in pandemic winters. Where everyday violence is palpable, but the related media reporting is offhand, cool, distanced, piecemeal, uncontextualized.

In an attempt to access a more revelatory language, the poems spar with an AI translator, disturbing the dis-ease of twenty-first century life that the city makes solid and covers up. Slavery, permanent war, and Empire titter in the resulting language, in its bending of what is possible, as only poetry can do. The poems trace the relationship between the human “you” and the machine “I” through five powerful, nuanced, and thought-provoking episodes. Anna Lee-Popham’s impressive debut collection is immersed in the current ruptures of the world, rendering a translation of Empire and beyond-Empire to a possible convergence for “you” and “I.”

96 pages, Paperback

Published March 26, 2024

Reviews

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lee-Popham takes the monstrous, all-seeing, all-digesting city as her subject, crafting sonnets about the feeling of being dwarfed and absorbed into the skyscrapers and concrete.

Her language is endlessly chewable, never flowing but twisting and amalgamated like a continually renovated city block. Her notes at the end are filled with the inspirations of news articles about big business and surveillance capitalism, and the carceral state, the criminalization of homelessness, the struggles of colonialism (Toronto’s Ryerson statue beheading gets a poem) are all there.

But it’s mostly the intersection of the body and the city that is the subject. Endless digestion, breaking down, this inevitable crushing. It has a Ballard mixed with Cronenberg feel, not exactly hopeful.

It’s a short collection, at a bare 60 pages, and effective in its monomania. Though by the last section as yet more poems about them mining your data, you can see the rust a bit in the gears. There’s only so much material that you can churn here. But Popham does a very good job of churning all that slate grey madness leaving you feeling dirty and watched.

[Lynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The deep, technical writing was a wonder and reflected in the extensive nature of the citations and inspirations listed. I hesitate to say I loved it because its not really that kind of book, but it is so intelligent and critical.

[Evren Sezgin · Rating 5 out of 5]

fantastic book of poetry. Anna Lee Popham offers an incredibly thorough and uniquely lyrical reflection on the world around us. She is a phenomenal poet and writer and I cannot wait to read her next book!

[Tina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed these poems!
Thank you to the publisher for my gifted review copy!

[August Bourré · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really my scene. A lot of potential here, but not realized. Over-intellectualized and under-felt.