Penury [Paperback]

Myung Mi Kim (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2009

Breaking communication into its most discrete components, this collection of poems deeply examines forced loss, violence, and impoverishment. Exposing hidden relations in sound and sense, the language in this anthology communicates more than just ideas by testifying to the oppressive concepts and cultural practices that are dominant in today’s society. While the title of this expressive compilation means poverty, its content articulates the need for change.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Avant gardist Kim's fifth book is a diligent inquiry into the relationship between language and power. The poems take place in a wasteland where war and, as the title would suggest, poverty are the norm; immigrants are treated with harsh suspicion and interrogated repeatedly, and Kim's rage at injustice and suffering rings loudly: [lookout post] / Are these your names/ From we are from where are you from/ Say this may speaking// To burn or expose to the threat of the sun a person with a pigeon chest and protruding stomach. The most fragmentary of these poems, which sprawl inventively across the whole page, can be quite difficult to parse, at times overwhelmingly so; still, a sense of urgent confusion comes to the fore, enriching the book's overall texture. Finally, this is an unsettling, collection that staunchly confronts a point in history when the fish die all at once and appear on/ the banks all at once. (June)
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Review

"Avant gardist Kim's fifth book is a diligent inquiry into the relationship between language and power."  —Publishers Weekly

"Though [Kim's] work is philosophical in its searches, it's always rooted in the concrete of language . . . It is as if language is philosophical and must abscess to be concrete."  —Globe and Mail

"Extracts the sparest of reactions and reflections to global politics, colonization, immigration and other issues in fragmented form that takes the blank page as a kind of force field for splinters of language and images. The result is gnomic, austere and obliquely intense."  —Memphis Commercial Appeal

"An immensely talented poet, Myung Mi Kim loves language—its internal rhymes, alliterations, and diverse rhythms. Caught off guard by the beauty and precision of Kim's language and the exquisite images she so deftly conjures, we are drawn unwittingly into a web of fragmentary memories that subvert what we think we know about the violent history that haunts her."  —Elaine Kim, author, Asian American Literature: An Introduction to the Writings and Their Social Context

"An immensely talented poet, Myung Mi Kim loves language—its internal rhymes, alliterations, and diverse rhythms. Caught off guard by the beauty and precision of Kim's language and the exquisite images she so deftly conjures, we are drawn unwittingly into a web of fragmentary memories that subvert what we think we know about the violent history that haunts her."  —Erin Moure, poet

"[In Myung Mi Kim's work] historically specific scenes are interwoven with hallucinatory fragments, reminding us of poetry's oldest concerns with destruction, diaspora, and the preservation of the human figure from oblivion."  —Multicultural Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Omnidawn Publishing (June 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890650374
• ISBN-13: 978-1890650377
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #662,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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