We must always be as careful with nostalgia as we are with most forms of vulgarity: it is too close to the whore’s heart, and can be used by politicians to promote a “purity,” an Edenic return that supports the most vile sense of the volk.
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Voices of the Fourth Generation
The translated poems seem more interested in criticizing Chinese society than aesthetic expression. In spite of these issues, the translators should be respected for their down-to-earth choice of the poems.
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Tall Poetry: James Copeland’s To My Plants
James Copeland is a tall man, who rides a tall bike, drinks tall drinks, and writes tall poetry.
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Stirring of consciousness, awakening of reason
Thin Kimono is a book of mistaken identities: a hallucinogenic wandering through a cocktail party the night before the invention of the internet. The party is populated with individuals you may or may not know. Your wife is a slightly altered version of herself.
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The Actual Voice of Someone Else: Philip Levine’s “News of the World”
News of the World certainly offers some typical-feeling moves to those familiar with Levine’s oeuvres, it also contains formal variations and preoccupations that will amuse and surprise both his admirers and those who don’t yet know his work.