Canadian poet Daniel Sarah Karasik self-combusts on the page in Plentitude, a collection of poems that draw on Karasik’s experience as a grassroots social and political activist and a nonbinary Jewish-Canadian youth. In their attempt to offer readers a world free from oppression while also acknowledging the internal contradictions of the “trans-socialist” ideology that will guide us there, Karasik touches on an eclectic set of disparate topics, from the personal to the political to the sexual, in poems that are united in their willingness to shock and challenge by subverting the systems of indoctrination that lull and lure us from the future that could be. 

Needless to say, what’s offered here is—true to its name—a plenitude that manages to translate overwhelming political and social theory and critique into an impressively slim collection that could be finished in a single sitting. Now, as is the case with political poetry collections, I find that certain poems stand alone nicely, and others can only be appreciated within the context of the book as a whole. For me, the latter, at times, threatened to overwhelm my enjoyment of the collection, as I was left wanting more from a lot of the poems that touched on interesting subjects but never explored them as fully as I would’ve liked (e.g., poems like “riding” and “warning” competently capture the poet’s intriguing moods and thoughts—so much so that I was left wanting more, whereas poems like “energy” and “civility” were concise political indictments that were perhaps a little too concise to hit as hard as they could have).

Naturally, given the sophisticated nuanced subject matter, this collection won’t appeal to everyone’s taste or sensibilities. But even if you might not agree with much of what Karasik has to say or how they say it, Plentitude still offers readers remarkable insight into a perspective that until recently has been suppressed and has just begun to make some noise in the mainstream. Bringing these ideologies to light is why I recommend not missing out on the singular vision borne out of the convictions of its poet, who has a lot to say that we should listen to.

J.D. Harlock is an Arab writer/editor based in Beirut. He is the Poetry Editor at Orion’s Belt, the Poetry Co-Editor at Solarpunk Magazine, and the Outreach Manager at Utopia Science Fiction Magazine. You can find him on Twitter @JD_Harlock.