Maybe the Body: Poems

by Asa Drake

A brilliant debut poetry collection by National Poetry Series finalist Asa Drake that explores the lineage and future lineage of a body shaped by economic, ecological, and political dissonance.

In her stunning debut poetry collection, Maybe the Body, Asa Drake witnesses firsthand the conflicts between art and patriotism, labor and longing. She reaches for the lush landscapes—real and recounted—of the Philippines and the American South as she traces the lineage of a body shaped by economic, ecological, and political dissonance. As one poem reminds us, "it's so hard to write about love without writing about the country we live in." These thirty-eight poems, threaded together with a six-part braided sequence, bind a multigenerational conversation between grandmothers, mothers, and aunts through a range of forms, from pantoums to prose poems. With its vivid imagery and an unforgettable lyrical perspective, Maybe the Body reconsiders the “natural” transactions of work, intimacy, and the poem itself.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

Expected publication February 24, 2026

About the author

Asa Drake is a Filipina/white poet in Central Florida. She is the author of "Maybe the Body" (Tin House, 2026) and "Beauty Talk" (Noemi Press, 2026), winner of the 2024 Noemi Press Book Award. A National Poetry Series finalist, she is the recipient of fellowships and awards from the 92Y Discovery Poetry Contest, Kenyon Review Residential Writers Workshop, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, Storyknife, Sundress Publications, Tin House and Idyllwild Arts. Her poems can be found on The Slowdown Podcast, The American Poetry Review, and Poetry Daily. A former librarian, she currently works as a teaching artist.

Reviews

[MONIQUE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for this EARC! This is a beautiful collection of poetry about the body that is explored for all angles including economic and not limited to lineage. The prose in this collection seems to be written in riddles at times but if you take time unraveling them they will provide a warm and understood feeling. One line I particularly liked was from the poem “to someone who’s said I LOVE YOU too many times”

“I understood the risk of it. The sound that alters
My heart. The sound I could not make
For myself. My mother didn’t want me to repeat
Her life. She wanted me to recognize
the possibility of repetition.”

This is a beautiful collection and I encourage people to check it out if poetry and prose is your jam. 💛⭐️💛

[Val~ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thanks to Zando Projects | Tin House for this ARC of Maybe The Body by Asa Drake via NetGalley. The art cover has elements that portray imagery from the poems. You can find several literary devices and poetic forms. However, it was kind of difficult for me to connect with the prose poems, and with the idea behind the book itself. There are also pop culture elements that I'm not totally convinced of, even when I enjoy progressive prose.

[Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's so hard to write about love without writing about the country we live in."

a beautifully written collection concerned with histories, language, love, & the world we live in (both political and ecological). i really like the narrative sections (one excerpted above) which place the poems in both a time and a space of mind. there is a lot here on the middle-ness of being between cultures & language & more. the poems are very of the moment (like searching your house on Zillow) but with a timelessness as well that i think is hard to pull off.

a good collection to read if you also stay up pondering about your place in the world.

thanks to netgalley for the arc!

[June · Rating 5 out of 5]

I so love this poet's observations and use of nature. Proetry (prose poems) that you can dip into like your tongue on the sugary product of honeysuckle flowers. While the middle of the collection did not grip me as much as the beginning and end, I was entirely consumed by Drake's ability to capture the fleeting moments of life in verse. I wish I could quote some of these poems.. but I cannot! So instead I'll offer some keywords: passionflowers pinning you down, feeding the rabbits and being that kind of animal, flowers as shortcuts to desire, gardeners and cultivars, unopened blossoms and unpollinated vines, rhetoric around bombings.

Favorite poems - "Certain Outlines Can Only Be Imagined", "In the Tradition of Women Who've Blessed Me to Transfer These Virtues", & "Yonder"

(4.5) (thank you to NetGalley and Tin House for this e-arc!)

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's something comforting in these words. For a debut, this is really strong and I can't wait to read more of their work. It's very intimate.

Thanks for the ARC

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m not interested in making myself legible or accessible to others. I try to write my poems as clearly as possible for myself. I’m the only person that I have to make comfortable.

Asa Drake in an interview found at
https://www.onlypoems.com/interviews/...

Startling and original, upon first reading I was not always sure I understood these poems, but knew I was being taken on a journey into another’s soul. Identity, heritage, the nature of love and being loved, are explored in the poems. The more I read them, the more they spoke to me.

Yonder by Asa Drake
Light breaks the window. You don’t recognize light
as a hard hitter. Moonlight moonlighting as meteorite,
curtain rod come loose, cabinet collapsed at dawn, a sign
you must go out into the world, received by the reproduction
of gardenias and orange blossoms hungry for visitors.
Love bends the balcony in water weight. Once,
a neighbor cried out for help, collapsed under the collapsed
trellis of passion flowers. Maybe the best omen
for moderation is the thing we love pinning us down.
I check the value of my house on Zillow. My house moonlights
as a more expensive house online. Even the comfort of numbers
scares me. Then there is the comfort that the end of us isn’t the end.

“You must go out into the world,” Drake writes in Yonder, and yet “the thing we love” can collapse and pin us down.

Letter to my Younger Self
by Asa Drake

When I see men digging clay beside the confederate
monument, I want to know if this is where we bury
unspecific history. Make it look easy.

Lately, I worry. Today, I was told
most mixed-race women die in fiction, which implies
that the living version of myself is difficult

for others to imagine. Today a crossing light,
swallowed by the rainy season, joined the number
of things I’ve touched that fall into sinkholes. All space

I didn’t know I was risking. I worry a great deal
about the unimportant ways you busy your hands.
Get thee to a dry cleaner, my love.

Let someone else play human. The woman behind me
can’t stand to look. Who could do that everyday, she says,
like each night I boil moths myself and spin silk.

As a Filipina/white poet she explores her heritage and how she is marginalized by white culture. “I am where I come from,” Drake writes about being mistaken for a waitress while in a restaurant celebrating.

I appreciated the Notes with sources and inspirations for the poems.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

[ash · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks Netgalley for the arc!
This poetry collection was a journey for me. It had its ups and downs, and I was solid on my review about halfway in, only to have my opinions greatly changed in the last 20 pages or so. For the beginning and early middle of the collection, I really wasn’t getting the poems. The writer has an incredible talent for words, so the problem could be on my own comprehension, but I found myself rereading many of the poems more than I usually do, dissecting them, taking notes, even googling terms or references I didn’t follow - and I still didn’t understand what these poems were trying to say. I do love a poem that you have to read again and think about more closely, but some of them I found myself giving up on, having read some beautiful words without really knowing what they were trying to say. Too many overly abstract choices for me, or poems where I thought I was following quite well, only to be thrown off by the last few lines.

That being said, later in the collection this started to change. I really did enjoy a lot of the later poems, my favorite being “Wading Into A River Beneath the Interstate.” From about there on, I was able to connect with these poems, entangle the poet’s meanings, and found myself truly a fan of them. Some of the lines just need a lot of thought, but when it clicks - it clicks. Even in those I didn’t like, you can tell the poet put her heart and soul into these poems, and sometimes things aren’t meant for everyone. Overall, a well done collection, perhaps with a target audience that isn’t me. I am very aware that many of her experiences are ones I don’t share, and poetry is a very personal thing for everyone. I definitely want to revisit this another time.

[Sacha · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Drake's debut poetry collection features poems centered on self- exploration within the family, within society, and within isolation.

For me, a favorite element of collections like this is finding my way and identifying a clear, central motif and a sense of who the poet is (from a writerly vs. biographical perspective). It almost feels like jumping in to Double Dutch. Sometimes, you're in after a couple of rotations. Other times, you stand on the side really trying to get that rhythm so that you can be a contributing part of the process instead of the reason it ends. My relationship to this collection was more like the latter scenario. I kept trying to jump in, but I found myself on the outside waiting for a little longer than I'd have liked. Overall, my assessment of why that happened was the constant feeling that I was experiencing referrential material. I loved identifying connections to movements, ideas, and even other poets' works. What I wanted more of is a that personalized sense of who this writer is.

This is a solid debut collection, but it left me feeling like I want to know more about this writer than like I have a clear, emerging vision of that. I'll look forward to more opportunities to find those answers.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and Tiffani Ren at Tin House for this widget, which I received in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had the exceptionally good fortune to receive an advance copy of Maybe the Body from Tin House; this is a book I've been anticipating since reading Asa Drake's chapbook One Way to Listen, and I find Drake's continued growth and development as a poet delightful. Maybe the Body is filled with complex, discursive poems that feel dialogic in nature. This is an impressive feat, given the one-sided (or transmissional) reality of the relationship between poet and reader, but such is Drake's deftness with diction that the poems feel welcoming and conversational, even when considering the complicated and difficult realities of intergenerational experience with regime change, immigration, forced estrangement, and distance. Drake never foregoes the humanity of those about whom she writes; there's nothing reductive or sentimental in her portrayal of familial history, and the collection is incredibly rich and resonant because of that commitment. I'm looking forward to repeatedly returning to this collection and deepening my engagement with it. These poems will reward that attention.

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and Asa Drake for providing me with an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Asa Drake’s Maybe the Body is a debut poetry collection that meditates on inheritance, identity, and the ways our bodies carry history across generations. Through 38 poems, Drake weaves together imagery from the Philippines and the American South to explore how family, migration, and politics shape the self. The collection often situates personal experiences—conversations with grandmothers, mothers, and aunts—within broader cultural and ecological contexts, reminding us that love, labour, and art are inseparable from the country we live in. Drake’s language is lush and evocative, with striking images that linger, yet the collection sometimes leans too heavily on abstraction, making certain sections feel fragmented or dense. Overall, Maybe the Body is a promising and thoughtful debut that shines in moments of clarity and resonance, earning a solid 3.5 stars for its beauty and ambition, even if it doesn’t always achieve cohesion.

[sahra (readwithsahra_) · Rating 3 out of 5]

***ARC***

poetry is a powerful tool to convey emotions but also transcribes what you can’t fully put into sentences. and you can definitely feel it in this collection, it almost felt like navigating through a polaroid box you found in an attic and you don’t know anything about the person appearing in every photos

ultimately this wasn’t my fav thing bc I’m not a big fan of this style of prose that feels a bit like modern art, you have to dive in between the line to get the work and even like that you might not fully get the author’s intentions. to me the writing felt fractured which instilled this feeling of not knowing the author, which is something I appreciate with reading poetry

some of the poems felt a but incomprehensible to me but I really enjoyed the ones about identity, heritage and being an immigrant’s child in a white-dominated country

at the end, I wasn’t fully the audience but I appreciate the author’s work and I think it truly can find its people

rating: 3⭐️

[Rhiley Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for the E-ARC! This E-ARC was sent to me in exchange for an honest review.

Exploring identity, family, heritage, America, and Mother Earth-This collection was full of incredibly beautiful stanzas, the reality of being mixed raced in Trump's America, and the wars against Mother Earth.
Asa Drake is exceptionally talented! As a writer, she knows how to suck you into her poetry and SEE her story at the same time you read her words.
Her prose is stunning, but almost dream-like. The poems are real and open and vivid and yet also hazy with the way Drake will use stanzas that are lyrical and ethereal.
I adored every second of my time. I learned new history, I learned of new environmental crises, and I ached I ached I ached.

[Holly Slick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a lot of poems about her (Asa Drake) mother. They have a close loving relationship. There are also a lot of poems about nature, she even explores the river beneath a highway and takes pictures to send to her friends. She also writes about the Atlanta spa shootings that happened back in 2021 right after the covid lockdowns when Asians were being attacked out in public. She doesn't give the shooter any publicity by mentioning his name. These are good poems, they don't rhyme like Emily Dickinson, but they still have complex poetic meaning. She has one other chapbook out and I think I'll get it too. Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for giving me an advanced copy of this book.

[Megan Magee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find myself almost inadequately fit to rate this book, but I'm going to give this a solid four star rating. Asa Drake gives us poems replete with heritage, inheritance, memory, southern States, and personal tragedies that have happened throughout the years. I can feel the longing and anger spoken through these poems, in a way that almost makes her fire smoldering and not raging? The rage is silent in times, in waves in others- but to me, is there, and made resonant in all the times repression is referenced. I enjoyed the vignettes of Drake and her family and her heritage and will certainly be checking out more from this poet. Thanks so much to NetGalley and Zando for the eARC. All opinions are entirely my own.

[Katy Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Poetry is a deeply personal art form, and for most poets I know it is like cutting out a little piece of their soul and stitching it onto the page. I could tell that this poet put a lot of feeling into their art. It was written very well and had interesting form and rhythm. I have no complaints at all from a technical standpoint. It did not, however, land with me. I acknowledge that I am just most likely not the audience for this poets style and story. I absolutely do not regret picking it up and I hope it is impactful for everyone who does.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

[icantcomeimbooked · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review — Maybe the Body by Asa Drake

“Maybe the Body” is a raw and intimate poetry collection that sits in that space between pain, identity, memory and survival. The writing is lyrical and very personal, and even when a poem didn’t land as strongly for me, the ones that hit — really hit.

It’s heavy in places, but it’s honest, and I appreciated that this book doesn’t try to tidy trauma up or make it pretty — it just tells the truth in the way only poetry can.

Rating:4 stars

this is one I’d recommend to readers who like poetry that digs deep and isn’t afraid to be vulnerable

[Kuu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.

A poetry collection about identity, belonging, and language, this was right up my alley. Skillfully crafted, with language that evokes emotion without depending on clichés, this was a very nice read, simple but not lacking in any way. Instead, the simplicity, the straight-forwardness of the poems (even when employing metaphorical language, similes and other stylistic devices) carries you through the collection like a wave. A very lovely book of poetry.

[Anastey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you Netgalley, Zando Projects, and Asa Drake for sending me this advance review copy for free. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

This was a very enjoyable book of poetry. There were several different styles of writing, and it worked really well here to give you pauses to stop and think. It has a lot of emotional depth. It feels like there is an constant worry and anxiety lurking under everything. It was a really interesting read.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Asa Drake's "Maybe the Body" is a collection of poems that addresses personal history and a turbulent political present. Drake's poems take different forms and stylistic approaches to weave the story of generations of family political involvement in The Philippines' People Power Revolution as well as the changing realities of politics in the United States in the past 20 years.

[Danielle Robertson · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...Mothers say, happiness is inherited. / Sometimes the garden is made of stones. / Care first. Decide about love later."
This is a stunning collection about family, patriotism, art, and conflict (both external and internal). Beautiful work.
Thank you to Tin House and Zando for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review!

[Venneh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really well done poetry collection about existing in this world, longing, labor, patriotism, and how we construct who we are in the world.

[Malli (Chapter Malliumpkin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

ARC was provided by NetGalley & Zando Projects | Tin House

Content/Trigger Warnings: Racism, forced estrangement, grief, isolation, mental health, generational trauma


This was an absolutely beautiful poetry collection. I loved the way the author took a lot of their experiences and compared it with nature. The way the whole collection flows so beautifully as the author dives deep into themes of change, immigration, familial history, and so much more. I'm eager to read more from this author in the future. I will say, I don't know if the prose of this collection will work for everyone. There's elements with the prose that may just miss the mark for readers.


All thoughts, feelings, experiences, and opinions are honest and my own.


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