Anonymous Guest is another audacious display of brilliance by Torrance Stephens. His poetical approach is lyrical essay on one extreme and pure emotion that he uses to disarm readers and form a carefully constructed force field against the common pain many African Americans, in particular men, feel being vulnerable to love and emotion and bigotry and prejudice. His poems add great texture, not only to the instinctual relationship black men born in the south have with the world around them, but also to the energetic color and rich diversity of African-American culture on a whole. Stephens is a poet of mammoth talent, and this collection is a considerable treasure.