Welcome to Litsy!

Despite an epic hangover, I managed to follow through on my resolution to start writing more. I set-up a whole blog and everything! I named it “Impossible Honey” after a line from Chen Chen‘s poem, “Spell to Find Family.”

Let me know if you read my first post, about my Word of the Year for 2023.

@monalyisha/word-of-the-year-touchdown-39e872a155b8" rel="nofollow" target="_top">https://medium.com/@monalyisha/word-of-the-year-touchdown-39e872a155b8

(I promise to be more focused on #AuldLangSpine now that this is accomplished!)

I wrote a blog post about #PoemsBeforePhones for work. The idea (which I started way back when, here on Litsy!) is that you read (at least) one poem each morning before reaching for your phone.

Note to self as much as others: Stop doom-scrolling through social media before you‘ve even had a goddamn cup of coffee! Who does that serve???

Here‘s a link to my post, where I recommend some of my favorite collections: https://tinyurl.com/AlyishaPoetry

Cover reveal for Chen Chen‘s new book of poems (9/13/22)!

*If you haven‘t yet read his first collection (tagged), I highly recommend it. 🌙

This is pretty awesome. It's strange and beautiful at the same time. A lot of the poems talk about the author's experience as a gay Chinese immigrant in the US. I like how he uses language. And this title is lovely.

#BookSpinBingo free space
@TheAromaofBooks

Another Chen-gem. 💎

I love Chen Chen. 🍖

I just love this poet: work, spirit, body, & face.

New arrival! And an intended self-portrait that I rather liked with this cover.

#poetry

tbt a much needed weekend away with old college friends. When did nothing that weekend and it was everything! (Well not exactly nothing - you know we had to find the closest bookstore 😁)

I like that the street we‘re on is named after a tree, / when there are none, poplar or otherwise. I wonder if a tree / has ever been named after a street, whether that worked out.

Time flies! How about a top 3? 😉

Winner:
“Sing, Unburied, Sing” by Jesmyn Ward

Runner-Up:
“The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros

Honorable Mention:
“Sadie” by Courtney Summers
(audiobook HIGHLY recommended!)

Also, I really, truly loved the tagged poetry collection!

#BestBookSoFar2019

From In Search of the Least Abandoned Constellation :

The reader's face is a child's rapt face. The book is her latest soul, disguised as a more or less acceptable concrete object. The child is happy. The afternoon, a novel.

#poetry #poetrychallenge2019 for March.

4/5
I know nothing about poetry so I‘ve always breezed through them. But I found myself rereading Chen Chen‘s work multiple times and some of his lines stopped me in my tracks. And since I know nothing about poetry, I‘ll just leave you with one of my favorite lines:

“Seeing you run so beautifully on the track that afternoon, I wanted you to suffocate, breath-starved from all the miles you‘d run away from me.”

#ReadHarder2019

I love seeing which titles get to be bookshelf buddies (&, weirdly, which friends get to hang out next to each other in my phone‘s contacts list 🤷‍♀️)! Chen Chen gets it. 💕

I don‘t have anything nearly as entertaining on my shelves, as most of my humor & pop culture books come from the Library, but I do love seeing Mary Daly‘s spine (from “Beyond God the Father”) rubbing up against Emerson‘s. Shaking up that God shit through the centuries!🙏🏻

But every kind of someone needs
someone else to insist with. I need. If not the you
I have memorized & recited & mistaken

for the universe--another you.

On Earth lately, I've been looking at everyone

like I love them, & maybe I do. Or maybe I only love
one person, & I'm beaming from it. Or actually

I just love myself, & I want people to know.

I appreciate poetry; I don't really love it. This collection didn't change my mind. And yet I've posted three quotes. And it did make me laugh and cry and think - which is, I guess, what you ask from a book of poetry.

So while it is not my thing, it is good. Some of his lines are startlingly beautiful.

#ReadHarder
#ReadHarder2019
A collection of poetry published since 2014

#ReadHarder
#ReadHarder2019
A collection of poetry published since 2014

#ReadHarder
#ReadHarder2019
A collection of poetry published since 2014

#ReadHarder
#ReadHarder2019
A collection of poetry published since 2014

Instead of my paltry review, here are Chen Chen‘s own words:

“Trying to get / over what my writer friend said, ‘All you write about is being gay or Chinese.‘ / Wish I had thought to say to him, ‘All you write about is being white / or an asshole.‘ Wish I had said, ‘No, I already write about everything—‘ / & everything is salt, noise, struggle, hair, / carrying, kisses, leaving, myth, popcorn, / mothers, bad habits, questions.”

#LGBTQ #poetry

I‘ve got a library copy of this radioactive collection of poetry and I was thinking of getting my own copy because I feel reluctant to return it. Book Depository tells me today it won‘t arrive in time for Christmas. 11 months? That doesn‘t bode well. Fortunately, I know it will be at the library.

People person seeks paid internship in liking you as a friend, respecting you as a coworker. Serial monogamist seeks change of pace in slutting it up for the summer. Animal lover seeks entry-level position, teaching guinea pigs how to swim. Solitude lover seeks more of the same.

-from ‘“In This Economy”

(Internet photo)

I‘m envious of the clouds who can from time to time fall completely apart & everyone just says, “It‘s raining,” & someone might even bring cats & dogs into it, no one says, “Stop being so dramatic” or “You should see a professional.”

#LGBT #poetry
(Internet image)

Dreaming of one day being as fearless as a mango.
As friendly as a tomato. Merciless to chin & shirtfront.

#queer #poetry
(Internet photo)

I tried to ask my parents to leave the room,
but not my life. It was very hard. Because the room
was the size
of my life.

#lgbt #poetry
(Author photo from Internet)

i pledge allegiance to the weather
report that promises more snow, plus freezing rain. though i would minus the pluvial & plus the multitude of messages pressed muddy into the perfectly mutable snow

#LGBT #poetry

I want to be friends with Chen Chen. His poems are smart, creative, romantic, &, unexpectedly, fucking hilarious. The subject matter — racial identity, sexual identity, discrimination, loneliness, love, nature, pop culture, academia, sickness, death, & orgasms — doesn‘t automatically scream “laugh-a-minute,” but the poems *did* make me laugh.

*Review cont‘d 👇🏻

I thought you were my best friend,
but you‘re just a paperback copy
of Madame Bovary
I haven‘t been able to finish,
I‘ve been putting off
her suicide for weeks now,
it‘s unbearable to know
how someone will die, even a
made-up someone who does
unlikeable things

#LGBT #poetry #spoileralert

When I was sick, I had a fever-dream that Chen Chen had written a poem about Buffy. I was so stoked but not surprised. He‘s that cool.

Then, only AFTER I had this dream, I started following him on Instagram. I saw that he‘d posted a video of a little pug in the snow, named Mr. Giles. “That‘s curious,” I thought.🤔

I JUST finished his collection & in the acknowledgments...he thanks RUPERT GILES.

I am a powerful, psychic witch. ALERT THE PRESSES.

#poemsbeforephones check-in:

5 poems this morning before reaching for technology! I think I‘m going to finish the collection today. There‘s not much left. I‘ll be sad when it‘s over! It‘s been a delight.✨

(Chen Chen‘s writer friend suffers from a profound lapse of imagination. Sit on it, writer friend. 🔩)

This collection is always making me wish that I could post entire poems instead of just select snippets. I finally decided to do just that today. But...I‘ll also include my favorite lines in case anyone is having a lazy Sunday 😉:

“It is time to show the universe what you are capable of,” says my horoscope, increasingly insistent this month. But what I am capable of is staring at the salt accident on the coffee table & thinking, “What sad salt.”

I‘m just realizing now that I forgot to post a #poemsbeforephones update this morning!

I read a SINGLE poem before starting my day. It was *that* kind of morning. 🙄 Still counts, though!

I finally have the day off tomorrow. And it should be snowing/raining. Sounds like the perfect opportunity for poetry in bed to me!

#totallynormal #dontworryaboutit

#poemsbeforephones checkin:
I read three poems this morning. My favorite was “For I Will Do/Undo What Was Done/Undone To Me,” which is about messages in the snow, weather patterns, & being a reader. I would‘ve chosen a passage from that but it really works best as a whole (& it‘s fairly long). Instead, please enjoy this weird salami sentiment! 🤷‍♀️

#poemsbeforephones check-in:

I read four poems this morning. I also stayed home sick today (just with a cold; I‘ve been fighting it for what feels like forever). I fever-dreamed that Chen Chen had written a poem about Buffy & I wasn‘t even surprised. I like him *that* much that it didn‘t seem unlikely. 😆😅 I guess this is just as good. (Okay, okay. It‘s better.)

#poemsbeforephones checkin:

I read three poems this morning & then stopped, because I had to, because the last one was SO freaking good.

I connected with this line, as my Bostonian past is also a mess of questions (or maybe ellipses? Question mark? 😅). I‘m not a New York kind-of gal, though. I think my Rhode Island present is better marked by semi-colons.

Which punctuation marks best represent the phases & places of your life?

#poemsbeforephones checkin:

I read 6 poems this morning. I continue to love Chen Chen‘s collection. 💕

“Everyone is trying their best please remain calm you may experience some turbulence flatulence a touch of total nauseating love.”

#poemsbeforephones checkin:
I read four poems this morning. 🙌🏻
I also slept until ten. 😵😱💀
(This one reminds me a bit of the speech from Vonnegut‘s “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.” Similar vibe.)

#poemsbeforephones checkin:

I read three poems this morning before touching technology. I wish I had time to read more. This collection is SO, SO GOOD.

😆😅

I started a new collection today, “When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilties.” l read four poems this morning. I‘m really digging it so far.

#poemsbeforephones

I forgot my book at home (again) today 😩.

These are the titles I have on-hand to peruse during my lunch break. At this rate, I‘m never going to finish the three books I need to by the end of the year. Why am I so scatterbrained? GAHD.

At least this rabbit puppet makes everything a little better.

Good debut poetry collection about love, being an immigrant in the US, and his relationship with his mother. Much of this centers around him being gay and the struggle for acceptance by his mother. While many of the poems are relatable and wise, I often felt that he didn‘t go deep enough with emotion or use of language. 3.5⭐️ Available on #Hoopla.

This is a genuinely excellent collection of poetry. Chen Chen manages to bring a sense of humour and pain and intellectualism to poems about everything from love to sexuality to immigration to race to health to family and so on. Well worth the read, and highly recommended.

#Sunday Reading 🌼 #Poetry #Coffee

#struggle #quotsymarch18 #poetrychallenge2018

Bio worthy👌😅 #PoetryChallenge2018

“I‘m envious of the clouds who can from
time to time
fall completely apart & everyone just
says, It‘s raining,
& someone might even bring cats &
dogs into it,
no one says, Stop being so dramatic or
You should see
a professional.”
#rain #quotsymarch18 #poetrychallenge2018

3.5/5 stars

The writing is interesting but i have enjoyed this read so far. Almost done with it. :)

One of the most honest & unfiltered poetry collections that I‘ve ever read. Chen brilliantly examines what it means to be an immigrant, the Other, gay in a cultural society filled with homophobia, & more.

This is what modern poetry should be: raw & sublime. It was magnificent & should be read by anyone who‘s ever felt the prejudice of being Queer, or an immigrant. 5/5.

#poetry #diversebooks #chineselit