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mustardseed's review
4.0
as a regular narcissist, of course i have to pick up a book that contains my name. i finished this in one sitting. truly confessional poetry, it's a heartrendering meditation on grief (alternate chapters are poetry-as-prose, a singular storyline on the process of grief), faith and the personal (such as the body).
favourite poems:
- 17 - “She is in the present reliving the moment she made the mistake of thinking that his ashes were solid enough to sink her hands into; to hold him alive and not let him go.”
- faith (of course, but i relate) - “This is what makes you pick / yourself up and move, / impuslive like the crazy, passionate / ones, going in search of the next hurricane.”
- locality - an evocation of seasons in singapore to paint a picture of a romance
- 07 - “Maybe all memory is fiction.”
- outpouring - on eating disorder
- ephemeral - beautiful poem on trying, and failing, to capture beauty.
favourite poems:
- 17 - “She is in the present reliving the moment she made the mistake of thinking that his ashes were solid enough to sink her hands into; to hold him alive and not let him go.”
- faith (of course, but i relate) - “This is what makes you pick / yourself up and move, / impuslive like the crazy, passionate / ones, going in search of the next hurricane.”
- locality - an evocation of seasons in singapore to paint a picture of a romance
- 07 - “Maybe all memory is fiction.”
- outpouring - on eating disorder
- ephemeral - beautiful poem on trying, and failing, to capture beauty.
wootmygoldfish's review
4.0
this struck unexpectedly close to home in touching on issues of loss, faith and eating disorders. the arrangement of poems was especially apt, with a light, coaxing voice linking the 'heavier' poems together. Tan doesn't just document grief, malaise and much else in between, she strings a thin line of hopefulness through her poems gently enough to deal with hard-hitting issues as these with an optimism that feels both organic and necessary. this has become one of my personal favorites for sure.
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