Burn, Only Ash

Abstract

Burn, Only Ash is a collection of poems centered within the in-between states, applying associations, referential material, rhyme, affect, and notions of linear movement that reach for comprehension in uncertain times. My poetry collection particularly focuses on the fears, phobias, and illnesses that accompany the condition of grasping for meaning. The collection examines predominant themes including that of recurrence: how one experiences the sense of change (impermanence, time) and/or how one senses others and their sense of change. My poetry is grounded in my personal familial location as a second-generation immigrant exploring issues of moments of transcendence amidst challenges of the diaspora. The poems explore coupled relationships, difficult emotions, and mental health struggles. Overall, the poetry collection applies the work of language poets, most notably the work of Lyn Hejinian and Ron Silliman, and the tradition of “personal, subjective, short, meditative, emotive, private, musical” (Rader 128) lyric poems. My work takes instruction from the use of informative gaps, such as in Lyn Hejinian’s brilliant work, My Life. Hejinian fills in spaces between substantive content with additional information, for example, by referencing an earlier sentence’s grammatical construction, in order to springboard to the next sentence. I contemplate the effect or possibility of leaving gaps, with the prospect of reaching towards otherness. Finally, my poetry work intertwines both Buddhist spiritual thinking and methodology, supported by Ian McGilchrist’s writing on the brain and the dangers of over-rationalism.