Harmless Medicine
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.33 (832 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0916397726 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 160 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2016-03-29 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Jason Allen said Complex resonance. Rarely does a book of poetry leave a reader with an experience of so many deep mixed emotions: joy, despair, anger, humor, etc. The longer complex poems ("Imagining America", "Little Everest In Your Palm", "Homomonument") contrast sharply with the humorous short prose poems like "Neo Testament" showing the range of Chin's writing ability. Some of the pieces are downright silly, like "Contents Page to the Book of Poems I Have Yet to Write", but that's okay because they provide relief from the heavy weight of a young . Brilliant It is so rare to encounter a writer who handles difficult material--life, death, love, joy,--yet does it with a light touch, a unique voice, exquisite prose, and most important, with a wicked sense of humor. Wicked, wicked. Justin Chin is the real thing.
Fiercely devoted to the margins of life in the generation after the devastating first wave of the AIDS epidemic, this cathartic collection of poems explores illness, travel, contagion, the meaning of home, identity, tainted purity, and the bits of life that contain them and hold them together in spite of the harsh exigency of daily life. In more than 40 pieces, Chin fearlessly delivers everything from his first exposure to science ("Magnified") to a mail order fantasy experience ("I Buy Sea Monkeys"); from backroads travel in Asia ("Little Everest in Your Palm") to the plight of immigrants in America ("The Men's Restroom at the INS Building"). Chin's brutal honesty and sharp humor frame a profound and original collection.
"Alongside personal explorations, Chin's poems take on the most rancid (and entrenched) attributes of contemporary life These critiques are vivid and defiant, yet poetically innovative and frequently playful." - Frigate