THE WORLD KEEPS ENDING, AND THE WORLD GOES ON

Franny Choi delivers these hopeful, heartbreaking, beautiful, sorrowful poems with quiet ardor. Her voice is soft and expressive, perfectly capturing the musical yet conversational tone of the whole collection. The poems are about everyday apocalypses and historical apocalypses; small moments of terror and joy; and the paradox of living on this planet, full of so much suffering and beauty. Some of the most powerful poems are the ones about past and future disasters: climate change, Covid, and the Korean War. But Choi also has an eye for intimate detail, as evidenced in the gorgeous poems about family relationships and past loves. Her voice never wavers except in moments of intense emotion, when it rises like a tide, drawing listeners in. L.S. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2022]