Overpour

Poetry. Asian American Studies. Jane Wong's powerful first book OVERPOUR weaves together seemingly disparate topics such as war and child's play, language and exile, debt, animals and nature. By doing so, Wong creates a space between--for the reader to enter. At the same time, by creating this space, she makes a space for possibility. For instance, in her poem 'Filed Notes Toward War, ' Wong writes 'The war is not over. / The streets are lined with little lamps of snow, / melting. Water pours without end. / There is a swan bathing in my mouth.' Montage-like, the poems are also a kind of philosophy by which I mean they are curious. They ask questions of the world. Not afraid of being earnest, Wong's voice is both playful and cerebral, weaving in and out of the world--its wars and its violence, poverty and alienation--making a beautiful and smart, strange and new, word elixir.--Cynthia Cruz