Song of a Reformed Headhunter

Chloe is a good friend and poet. Her second book PERFORATED marks an advance over her first VIABLE. The strengths of the first are still present in the second: an intimate but unassuming voice, an observant tenderness towards self and others, the willingness to broach difficult subjects. In the second book, the personal references widen out into the world. The Italian touchstones are handled with greater range and depth. My favorites in this regard are the opening poem "Pantheon," which ends distinctively yet inclusively in the way an Italian dialect "relies on the plural/ second person, voi," and the poem "Etruscan Bronzes," concludes soberly about the transience of youth: These bronze figures, from their height of youth, artist's hand concealed by the smoothing of time, gaze upon a far-off horizon long buried.

An attractive quality of these poems is the outsider's constant searching for self and form. "Mirror" is not only the title of one of Zhang Zao's most famous poems but also a recurring trope in his oeuvre. Thoroughly grounded in both Chinese and European literature, he seeks "a new tension and melting point," as Bei Dao wrote in his personal recollection of the author, included in this book. How successful are his sonnet sequences, "Kafka to Felice" and "Dialogue with Tsvetaeva"? The Chinese originals strike as too full of words and ideas, and so lack the pressure cooker of the sonnet form. The free-verse experiments are more interesting, often ranging and strange. One has the great title "Song a Wall Driller and the Ultimate Ear," but the poem, in fact, pages 179 to 186, are missing from my edition.  The poem I like best is called "Fly." It has something of John Donne's playful eroticism, but also the concision I ...

A richly detailed portrait of a man who tries so hard to gain some measure of autonomy from a distinctly impoverished background and a stultifying dependent family. Mr. Biswas is not lovable, but he is finally admirable for his ceaseless efforts to find a place of his own. In his quest for a house, he also exposes the place and relations of the Indian people in Trinidad.

I'm releasing the first track of my album TO THE TUNE on Saturday, July 4th. The track "You Are My Sister" is composed, sung, and played by the incredible Debbie Chou, with lyrics by me. On the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, I'd like to celebrate our whole human family. Other tracks by other collaborating artists from the album will be released weekly. Follow me by clicking this link to be the first to hear when I release new tracks. All the songs are based on my new poetry collection TO THE TUNE (Bench Press, July 15, 2026). Please consider getting a copy or two. All sales proceeds go to the Transformative Justice Collective for their fight against the death penalty in Singapore. Thanks for reading and listening!