The World That is Coming Inside You, A Review of Andy Izenson’s New Poetry Book
by Katrina Greco
“The World That Is Coming Inside You” by Andy Izenson from listen2yourskin Press, 2026
In Andy Izenson’s gorgeous collection, The World That Is Coming Inside You, the intense specificity of the Trans, Jewish, mystical, Queer experience is rendered in explosive technicolor with such evocative and remarkable language that the book serves as both a window and a mirror; inviting the reader, no matter their own lived experience, to consider the blood-bright depths of their own humanity.
Beauty and pain are interwoven throughout these poems, as they are in birth, in life, in death. While there is celebration, we are constantly being reminded of the costs. Labyrinths do not simply appear, the stones must be “lugged” and someone must “lay them out. . . for hours.” The new grass sprouts “like needles/ through the skin of the earth.” Izenson’s words demand presence, honesty, and open eyes; there is no escaping Truth as the new world presents itself to us. The body is powerfully present; the skull, the stomach, blood, skin, and teeth. The poem “Surgical Drains” explores the titular image as a point of rebirth, a lover, an explosion, and of course, a wound: “I know it hurts. . . but god, look at this flower.” What better expression of our stubbornly "unprecedented" times? What better expression of what it is to be alive?
This collection is deeply interested in magic, esoterica, mysticism, and religion. References to the Dionysian festival Anthesteria mix with traditional Jewish prayers, dragons and faeries dance with snakes and fireflies. As may be clear from the title, the divine erotic is powerfully present in this collection. The divine penetrates, “splitting me open and bringing the rain.” The world that is coming, and the divine mystical that comes with it, is expansive, sensual, sexual and fertile, full of sweetness and blood. Izenson discusses Trans and Queer identity through the exploration of the mystical. They write, “I traded my tits / for a mouth that can open wide enough to eat the world.” There is a repeated theme of opening, peeling, removing, consuming. Love of self, of the beloved, of the divine, demands metamorphosis. In these poems, sex is itself divine and earthly, a profound spell against despair “It feels absurd to want to do anything other than fuck/ in the belly of a forest fire.”
The language in these poems is dazzling. Izenson’s words sing with “little cat feet of newness,” odd and exciting metaphors that manage to surprise and yet leave the reader feeling like they know exactly what is meant. In a joyfully queer rewriting of The Song of Songs, the beloved is “salve on surgery scars, lavender and calendula”, “the pierced maple tree, offering up sap,” “my Molotov cocktail, my hearth.” Every poem offers new surprises of sound and image. Sometimes the speaker seems to be channeling esoteric truths, and just as often, the speaker feels familiar and warm, a friend you’ve always known, sharing a cigarette.
Many years ago, a poet told me there is a difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is shallow and simple, but joy is divine, and so requires sacrifice and pain to birth into the world. Joy is harder, but more enduring, deeper and more satisfying. The World That Is Coming Inside You sings a song of Trans joy, of Queer joy, of human joy. This song will echo in your soul.