The Land Of Bliss

by Cathy Song

Cathy Song’s fourth collection of poetry unveils glimpses of the elusive but ever-present power of wisdom and compassion. Recognizing that we have the ability to create our own misery as well as our own bliss, she finds the unexpected in broken lives, despair, and even seemingly joyous occasions. Song’s poems are often, like a handful of water, "cold and impossibly / clear, unlike anything / you’ve ever held before."

Genres: Poetry

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 18, 2001

Reviews

[Eric Shaffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems explore the possibilities of a spiraling inward toward meaning by gathering in phrases, clauses, and sentences and repeating them in whole or in part in order to vivify the surrounding images and statements. I found this technique relaxing and rejuvenating. A few of my favorite poems: I enjoyed "A Poet in the House," "Mother of Us All," "Stinkeye," "Riverbed" (very much), and "Handful," my favorite, a little one that says a lot. Here are some favorite lines: "Grandma fed us fists of rice/ packed hard as snowballs,/ musubi we saved for the drive-in movie,/ a broken fence our ticket through" and "Fragrance is the first/ to go but color clings its rust/ to petals tightly clustered as a fist of feathers" and, because of the fun and irony, the last lines of the last poem, "The Pure Land is empty./ There's nobody there." Good work.