AVAILABLE

ISBN 13: 978-1-894759-32-8
ISBN 10: 1-894759-32-X
Price: $16.95
Paperback
5.5 x 8 - 88 pp - May 2009

by Fiona Tinwei Lam

Book Description

Enter the Chrysanthemum is a luminous collection of poems about family, love and loss. Employing precise imagery and concise language, Lam plumbs and mines ordinary events and experiences to find a central core of poetic insight and sometimes harrowing truth. Whether written from the vantage point of a young child observing her parents, a single parent struggling to raise a child, or a daughter watching a parent's decline and death, these poems reconnect us to what it means to be human. Enter the Chrysanthemum is Lam's second book of poetry.

"The poems follow a sonata-like structure, with four interlocking "movements", each building and spiralling upon the last. The motif of the chrysanthemum serves as the frame for the collection, shifting from a symbol of loss and absence to one of grace. Besides being a chronicle of a journey, I see this book as a tribute to my parents, and to parents and families in general, with all their flaws, passions, longings and struggles."