Chen Chen (1) (1989–)

I FUCKING LOVE CHEN CHEN.

This collection absolutely blew me away, and was instantly promoted to my favorites shelf. His writing is joyful and playful and queer in ways that shine through even when writing about fear, about heartbreak, about rejection from those who should love you most, about gatekeeping.

I made note of so many particular favorites, but one that I think encapsulates this very succinctly is "we'll be gone after these brief messages." god appears in a magenta rowboat. god, the show more poet's grandmother and mother all weigh in, often with barbs, about the meaning and purpose of life. But in the end, god gets back in a turquoise steamship:

life is a joyful thing he said
it's probably very good for you.

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I ordered this when someone was raving over the author in my fandom twitter. Once I bought it, I realized my friend Heather had recommended it to me YEARS ago. Oops! However it got to me, I LOVED THIS. When I read a poetry collection I take little notes on my favorite poems to make it easier to find them later and I took notes on SO MANY of these poems. But I am going to let one of my favorite excerpts talk for me:

...Trying to get
over what my writer friend said, All you
write about is being show more 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.

So full of joy and seeking and finding and sticking by your own truth. LOVED THIS. show less

Chen Chen's collection of poetry is so viscerally emotional as to be both enchantingly impossible to put down and almost painfully relatable to anyone who has had to confront questions of queerness and acceptance within themselves and across family and cultural lines. So much is wrapped up in these poems. This book is a modern masterpiece of language, carefully crafted and masterfully wrought. Whether you are a fan of poetry or not, this collection belongs on your shelf and in your mind.

This collection traces loss and angst and queer joys through various relationships. The speaker in these poems wrestles with his mother's inability to acknowledge her queer son's boyfriend, lifts the names and voices of the innocent murdered at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, questions whether a white cashier really just discriminated against him (the way we Brown & Black people do: wonder if the racist thing we suffered only a few minutes ago was actually a racist thing, because a part of us, show more desirous of living free of judgement, still hope that the worst in people is not that bad, surely; not as bad as hate), expresses all the ways he loves men, and so much more. The collection is bold, unapologetic, grievous, and also heartwarming. There's this sort of gracious tone to the poems. I don't know why his grace surprised me - perhaps because the subjects of his poems, at times, don't deserve it (imho). A wonderful read and shoutout to Chen Chen. show less