What Noise Against the Cane Audiobook

The 115th volume of the Yale Series of Younger Poets, What Noise Against the Cane is a lyric quest for belonging and freedom, weaving political resistance, Caribbean folklore, immigration, and the realities of Black life in America. Desiree C. Bailey begins by reworking the epic in an oceanic narrative of bondage and liberation in the midst of the Haitian Revolution. The poems move into the contemporary Black diaspora, probing the mythologies of home, belief, nation, and womanhood. Series judge Carl Phillips observes that Bailey’s “poems argue for hope and faith equally… These are powerful poems, indeed, and they make a persuasive argument for the transformative powers of steady defiance.”

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“The 2020 winner of the Yale Younger Poets prize is sometimes emotionally difficult to hear. The poetry is unstintingly honest and unafraid of challenging the listener. Those unfamiliar with Caribbean speech may also have some trouble with the intense Trinidadian accent the author uses in many of the poems, but a second listen should enable anyone to get the full power of this work. And there is considerable power here, worthy of a second listen. The collection is centered on Caribbean history and mythology, and can be as educational as it is moving. Add to that a voice that is almost singing the text, and you get a marvelous poetry experience. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”

— AudioFile