Customer Reviews

Picture Bride (Yale Series of Younger Poets)

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This book was, I believe, the first book by an Asian American to win the Yale Younger Series of Poets Award. For that, it deserves to be read and respected.

My mood changed, though, as I read this book. Initially, I found it very beautiful - well composed, clean, and pleasant. As I kept reading, though, I found myself a little annoyed by all the "asian-ey" elements. Bamboo, shakuhachi, jacaranda, Utamaro, etc. Now, I think there's nothing inherently wrong with Asian imagery, it just felt like I got too big a dose of it here. All so idealized, stereotyped and archetypal. I can't recall reading much shadow in her lines - but this was written when she was 27. Perhaps I should read her more recent work to see how she's evolved.

I found this book through Hyphen Magazine's Winter 2011 profile of poetry. They wrote PICTURE BRIDE is "infused with rich painterly imagery and a contemplative, quiet tone...Song's poems tell stories about her ancestral and artistic roots. 'I am not surprised / by how little the world changes' she professes, as her poems capture the timelessness of memories in their continual influence on the present.

I can't argue with that rendering - this book is well worth a read, and perhaps a re-read. But on this first read, I was only somewhat satisfied.

I first read this collection while in college in the early 90's. I'm also an Asian-American girl from Hawaii so I could relate to many of her themes, but you do not need to be Asian or from Hawaii to appreciate her lovely poetry. As she likes to describe herself, she is "a poet who happens to be Asian American." My favorites in this collection are "The White Porch", "Chinatown" (I think that's the name...I don't have the book in front of me right now..), "Picture Bride" and "The Spaces We Leave Empty".