O Bon

By Brandon Shimoda and Cleo Qian

Poetry. Asian & Asian American Studies. "Brandon Shimoda's third collection of poetry reflects on the poet's family history, specifically, the life of his grandfather, who was imprisoned in a U.S. internment camp during World War II. These often spare, gorgeously crafted poems are constructed and persist within and out of chilling landscapes--the aftermath of the bombing of Hiroshima, the underworld."--Academy of American Poets "Brandon Shimoda is underground, in the realm of the dead. One hears 'the graceless steps of wandering spirits'--with them he wanders among trees, flowers, water, mixing them with the equally subtle presence of women whose bodies are weightless, who wander in his own life. His world is a hushed world--his book, a silent prayer, not to a god, but to life, the life of survivors--that one can whisper, can join the dead--that whisper turns into a ritualistic text, a celebration of witnessing, of the minute manifestations of reality. Brandon Shimoda barely touches his own words: they come to him from afar, float, take a sigh, haunt us and disappear, reappear on the next page, follow their obscure journey--in that we become bound to hear them, we follow them--they make a poem we want to read, and reread with closed eyes. Insinuating itself in the memory of Hiroshima and the bomb--a disaster surpassing disasters--his work is the saying of the dead who return, is a Requiem."--Etel Adnan

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1933959134
• ISBN13: 9781933959139
• Release Date: December 2011
• Publisher: Litmus Press
• Length: 93 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.5" x 8.4"