Poetry in Flight
Review of the Milkweed Editions paperback (January 2022)

How to Love a Rock

Notice the maroon cirrus clouds against
the gray of her landscape, then each white spot—
stars that propel you into space. Express
what you see in her, how you love the way

she smells like grass and salt. Ask about her
properties, history, how she was picked
from the glacial waters of Lake Crescent
and brought across the land to be placed

in your palms. Ask to feel her smooth. Caress
till your thumb can find a home in her brook.
Be with her and share your day, how you jumped
into a river, came out ice. How you

worry now, let it go. Give her space to
say not words; then, when she’s ready, many.

There was much joy in life, nature, food and family to love in this first collection by American poet Jennifer Huang who is on Taiwanese heritage. Several of the poems relate to her travels to Taiwan to understand her roots and these had the greatest resonance for me due to my own 'child of immigrants' background. But the nature poems about walks, rocks, creeks and those of the appreciation of food and taste such as Notes on Orange and song of chou doufu all had unique perspectives which sang with their own beauty.

There is a generous 5 page series of Notes on the poems giving the background on the Taiwanese and/or Chinese cultural references. Return Flight was the 10th winner of the Ballard Spahr Prize for Poetry, previously the Lindquist and Vennum Prize for Poetry, established in 2011.

See photograph at https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FZtyfsXXoAAtdFD?format=jpg&name=large
Staff Pick blurb for 'Return Flight' from Shakespeare and Company, Paris. Image sourced from Twitter.

I read Return Flight through its inclusion in the 2022 Year of Reading subscription from the English language bookstore Shakespeare and Company in Paris, France. ( )