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A review by bookish_arcadia
I Wore My Blackest Hair by Carlina Duan
3.0
An interesting collection of poetry focusing on the second-generation immigrant experience and reconciling American and Chinese culture. Duan rakes up powerful emotions of isolation and belonging, both with regards to her race and her sex and brings to light the prejudice caused by both. There are some sucker-punch verses that leap right off the page:
Many were too dilatory for me. While I could feel the emotion I couldn’t really connect to the words. For me, this style of poetry is too loose and unformed, the structure appearing random rather than considered and the metaphors, while striking, are too often over-wrought and hollow at the centre.
My mother
Does not own a
Laundromat or
A take-out restaurant;
She waters orchids
And doesn’t look
Your president
In the eye
Your white classmate sees you. Does not.
White men claim you. Do not.
You are small, fierce and evil: with
Two palms and a chest. There are
boxes made for you to check.
Chinese /
American. Chinese / American.
Your mom calls. She tells you to
Stop
Writing about race. You could get
shot, she says
Many were too dilatory for me. While I could feel the emotion I couldn’t really connect to the words. For me, this style of poetry is too loose and unformed, the structure appearing random rather than considered and the metaphors, while striking, are too often over-wrought and hollow at the centre.