Poem-A-Day: Cruel Cogito by Ken Chen

October 21, 2013 Cruel Cogito by Ken Chen     How joyous!,  passing this time alone  with your father, how bright his golden laugh  which drew you to laugh yourself uncontrolled,  how sweet the happy hour oysters you two pry and eat,  piling wobbling shells that glisten on the table  while the pianist plays by the kitchen doors.  You find yourself reminded of what you wrote  in the eulogy: that you two would still possess  a relationship even though  he was dead, that you could still  go and speak with him  when you dreamed    and so you see the seat opposite from you seats no one.      Copyright © 2013 by Ken Chen. Used with permission of the author.   About This Poem "This is an early scene from a book-length manuscript called The Death Star, concerning the death of the author's father. The manuscript explores the idea of death as a form of immigration--and re-imagines the underworld not as a metaphysical idea but as a spatial location and Tristan not as an epic lover but as a fallible interpreter for asylum cases to the underworld. Many of the poems focus on the apocalypse (as well as its opposite, cosmogony), with a hint of hysterical science fiction and magical kitsch, and a special emphasis on that most apocalyptic historical moment: imperialism."    --Ken Chen Most Recent Book by Chen Juvenilia (Yale University Press, 2010)   Poem-A-Day Launched during National Poetry Month in 2006, Poem-A-Day features new and previously unpublished poems by contemporary poets on weekdays and classic poems on weekends. Browse the Poem-A-Day Archive.   Ken Chen is the author of Juvenilia (Yale University Press, 2010), which won the 2009 Yale Younger Poets competition. Chen is the executive director of the Asian American Writers Workshop. He will be on a panel titled "The Poetic Impulse" at the Academy's Poets Forum in New York City, October 24-26.   Related Poems My Father by Scott Hightower Whose Mouth Do I Speak With by Suzanne Rancourt Lay Back the Darkness by Edward Hirsch __________________________ Join us at the Poets Forum in NYC, October 24-26 Purchase Tickets       Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.

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