An award-winning poet, translator, and authority on Vietnamese literature, Balaban was profoundly shaped by his experiences as a conscientious objector teaching and working with children in Vietnam during the war. Using that experience as one lens for a wide-ranging exploration of empire, his new collection features lyrics, narratives, elegies, and translations from Vietnamese and Romanian poets to illuminate how art has buoyed the human spirit through some of history’s darkest times, from the ancient world to the fall of the Twin Towers.
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From the opening image of a falling tree that’s “beautiful/and sad—like chance/itself. Like safety,” to precise descriptions of the house where “we thought the kids felt safe,” to the closing poem’s celebration of a successful return from a difficult Oregon trek—“we made it we were safe we pitched our tent/we built a fire pine logs snapping”—Bolz’s new book is a lyrical evocation of domestic life and love. The former co-editor of Poet Lore and the author of Shadow Play and A Lesson in Narrative Time, Bolz writes with warmth and precision, showing how everyday moments—children sleeping, a walk around the yard, settling into a new house—can be life’s biggest milestones.
(This book cannot be returned.)