English as a Second Language and Other Poems

by Jaswinder Bolina

Warm tenderness and fiery critique sit side-by-side in Bolina’s English as A Second Language , a collection that skewers, laments, and celebrates America with intelligence, humility, and a disarming sense of humor. In Jaswinder Bolina’s English as A Second Language and Other Poems , we are asked to imagine the tender and harsh realities of this world within a single breath— a Steiff monkey resting next to a child in a crib and the tired hands of “a thousand /women in Sidi Bouzid” assembling the stuffed animal. Coated in an armor of wit and humor and steeped in the idiosyncrasies of language, English as a Second Language  pits sentimentality against cynicism and the personal against the national. What remains is the kaleidoscopic image of the modern American condition.
From elegy to persona, wide-ranging poems tell the story of a child of immigrants becoming a parent against the tumultuous backdrop of our politics and culture. Where the collection asks, “What chance do any of us have?,” the poet finds hope, possibility. Bolina’s musical poems zip across time, challenging the fixity of the book. Clues offer the possibility of an alternate reading, where backwards, a new emotional arc appears—dreamlike, the nostalgic origin story of a sleep-deprived parent tracing a path through language and history. Forwards, backwards, English as a Second Language skewers, laments, and celebrates America with intelligence and humility.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 2023

About the author

Jaswinder Bolina is an American poet. He is the author of the chapbook The Tallest Building in America and a book of essays Of Color. His full-length poetry collections are Carrier Wave; Phantom Camera, which won the Green Rose Prize in Poetry from New Issues Poetry & Prose; and The 44th of July.

Reviews

[adeline · Rating 4 out of 5]

one thing about jaswinder is that you will never ever be able to guess how one of his poems end.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the smartest and most engaging poetry collections of 2023.

[slayomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bolina’s writing is snarky and funny and weird and reflective and bizarre in a good way. overall, this collection didn’t quite resonate with me, but i can appreciate good writing when i see it, and this is full of gems.

Favorite poems:

- House Hunters International
- The Apology Factory
- Elegy for a Dog
- The Living Daylights (or A Passage to Indiana)
- All His Fascist Wants
- The Apartment (or the Jesus Elegy)
- Actual Elegy
- A Little Slice of Heaven

[Malaena · Rating 5 out of 5]

wry, clever, drolly and heartfelt

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this entertaining collection, the poet quips about the meaning of human life on planet Earth during the pandemic whilst remembering his formative years as a child of immigrants, commenting on the challenges of being a sleep-deprived new parent, and weighing in on the precarious American condition amidst the tumult of politics, social upheaval, and cultural chaos of the Asterisk (45*) Years. “Nobody was on it but me,” the poet muses in “Quarantine Bardo.” Nobody with Bolina’s wry wit, that’s for sure.

“and the TV is talking to itself again, and the plague is there
making its gross calculations like a god sizing up a lamb.”
—from “The Plague on TV,” p. 53


Favorite Poems:
“Americanastan”
“Ancestral Poem”
“Second City Autumnal”
“The Apology Factory”
“Elegy for a Dog”
“Terrible Elegy”
“The Billy Graham Elegy”
“Self-Portrait of a Baby Monitor”
“Desert Rose”
“The Bad News: A Film Noir”
“The Plague on TV”
“Quarantine Bardo”
“The Apartment (or The Jesus Elegy)”
“Actual Elegy”
“Palace of Amenhotep (or 20th Century Elegy)”
“At War with the Cynics”
“Lines Composed Upon Changing a Diaper”
“The Usual Entertainment”

[Bonisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Actual Elegy"
"A Freudian Elegy"
"Once Upon a Toilet over the Alps (or Executive Platinum Elegy)"
"All His Fascist Wants"
"Desert Rose"
"The Plague on TV"

Basically the whole book is perfect.

And the Amiri Baraka quote from "Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note"

[Jamal Yearwood]

4.5 amazing collection of poems

[Booked 📚 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 / 5

[Shawn Aebi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A bit forced and at times bewildering. Still, some jewels in this collection, like Americanastan.

[Parksy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal poetry

[Amy Joy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshing.