Compulsive Swim

by Austin Davis, Cody Sexton (Illustrator), Paige Johnson (Illustrator)

Our city is an ocean. Every night one of our neighbors drowns in a crack on the sidewalk. Every night we call it hope to climb our way to the moon--just to panic when we can’t find an airplane or meteor to catch a ride home on. We spend days treading water with someone we love, hoping that a wave doesn’t rise and block our view of the sun. These 30+ illustrated poems exemplify that floating feeling of being between sobriety, society, and stillness.

Austin Davis is a poet and activist from Phoenix, AZ, who lives with OCD. He is the author of the chapbook Lotus & The Apocalypse and the founder of AZ Hugs For the Houseless.

“Like a Gen-Z John Donne…”
- Angele Ellis, Cultural Daily

“Davis holds in his hands an understanding for the diversity of emotion like it’s the fragile globe of a dandelion ready for wishes.”
- Caitie Young, The Poetry Question

Genres: Poetry

58 pages, Paperback

Published January 21, 2023

Reviews

[Aimee Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is pretty hard to choose selections to share in a review. This collection is so bare and transparent it almost becomes you. It's a very rare thing for poetry to be so honest and vulnerable without pretense and flash.

"ambulances blur
through our neighborhood

hearing is the last sense
to leave us when we die
and i know that tonight

someone's final sound
will be a siren"

In this collection I laughed. I reflected on my own life. I confirmed to myself hey, I'm doing my best and that's an ok thing.

"we take pills to fall asleep
so hard we fall right off this earth
for the night"

[Benzo Monroe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had previously read Lotus and the Apocalypse by Austin Davis and I was a big fan, but this one is even better. I still highly recommend Lotus but this feels like a natural progression from that book.
Poetry collections are hard to review without just repeating lines and this has a ton of quotables that ment a lot to me but might not resonate with people reading this review.
So I'll talk a little about his style. He has a very spare almost minimalist style, but he manages to say so much with very little words. This book goes into a lot of mental illness and substances. My personal faviorite subjects but its hard to do right. Often writers either come across preachy, cheesy or like they are glorifying. Austin Davis has a gritty to the point style where you can tell this is his life and how he feels and what he goea through.
I'm always a big fan of gritty and authentic poetry, I'd pick that over the most beautiful flowery poetry any day. So based on my preferences and just pure style Austin Davis will be a writer I will always keep an eye out for. Highly reccomended.