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sakeriver's review against another edition
Compared to a lot of the poetry I’ve been reading lately, this felt more understated, perhaps more restrained. There’s a calm in a lot of the imagery that felt familiar, especially in how it suggests big emotions underneath without making them explicit. In any event, they’re quite beautiful. I suspect these will Be poems that continue to offer up new impressions upon rereading.
omgnikki's review against another edition
5.0
august 2023 poetry challenge day 8. beautiful collection of memory, real & imagined, an asian american immigration history. "i will explain hope" and "insomniac in spring" 2 of my most favorite poems ever.
emmafong's review against another edition
5.0
huge shout out to my coworker for recommending this to me because oh my god it is insanely beautiful. my favorites were the insomniac poems.
jayisreading's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
“The Korean word for heaven is ha-neul nara, a kenning that translates literally to ‘sky country.’ It was a word often used by potential immigrants to describe the United States.” — Christine Kitano, “Sky Country”
This was a touching collection of poems that gently asks you to ruminate. Kitano roams and sits on the feeling of longing through identity and family history in particular. You can tell how deeply personal this collection is, as Kitano shares her Japanese American father’s experience at an internment camp; her Korean grandmothers immigrating to the so-called land of opportunities, away from postwar Korea. There is some intergenerational trauma woven into these poems—and done with subtlety—to acknowledge a particular weight that hangs over the family that Kitano takes care to approach with grace. My description makes it sound as though these poems are restrained in nature but, quite the contrary, some poems openly explore the tensions and frustrations felt. I was taken to this delicate balance of tenderness and tension that made me pause on multiple occasions to contemplate the complexities of one’s family history and culture, especially since it hits so close to home for me.
The poems themselves are simplistic in style, but there’s a particular beauty to their words that require some time to digest. Kitano gives an opportunity for you to sit in the silence between words during moments of pause, and I greatly appreciated those moments to think about my own family history, especially their immigration stories.
Some of my favorite poems from the collection were: “Sky Country,” “Fireflies,” “Leaving California,” “Ancestors,” “Insomniac in Spring,” “A Story with No Moral,” "Persimmons,” and “For the Korean Grandmother on Sunset Boulevard.”
kellyd's review
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Heartbreakingly beautiful. I especially resonated with "Monologue of the Fat Girl".
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