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A review by mepresley
Ghost of by Diana Khoi Nguyen
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
4.0
Some of the experimentation with form just wasn't for me and made the poems harder to read. Yes, it forced me to slow down more, which is always nice, but I'm just not a fan of breaking words off in the middle or black text against the background of a grey photograph. On the other hand, I loved what she did in terms of repetition with difference -- for example, "bewilder, we bewilder what we fill in what bewilders us to fill in what" (21) and "it keeps me alive it keeps me alive it keeps me alive it keeps" (37)--and these poems all held together very well, speaking to one another, and to grief and loss.
My favorite poems were "Triptych" (#1), "Family Ties," "Triptych" (#2), "An Empty House is a Debt," and "Future Self."
"Triptych" (#1)
a woman still
burying herself
pulling off the world
like fly's wings
"Triptych" (#2)
what may sound between appearance and disappearance, between sound and silence, as something
that is nearly nothing--
"An Empty House is a Debt"
What is a maze if there is nothing to find in the maze.
"Future Self"
Mending in a daybreak that casts every shadow
except your own;
the starved fern that keeps growing,
uselessly--
My favorite poems were "Triptych" (#1), "Family Ties," "Triptych" (#2), "An Empty House is a Debt," and "Future Self."
"Triptych" (#1)
a woman still
burying herself
pulling off the world
like fly's wings
"Triptych" (#2)
what may sound between appearance and disappearance, between sound and silence, as something
that is nearly nothing--
"An Empty House is a Debt"
What is a maze if there is nothing to find in the maze.
"Future Self"
Mending in a daybreak that casts every shadow
except your own;
the starved fern that keeps growing,
uselessly--