Volatile

Poetry. In this book, Kimiko Hahn manages to take the air of atrocity we breathe in daily and turn it into fierce political/ lyrical poetry, in the tradition of Shelley's The Masque of Anarchy. Current events ripped open and the entrails exposed in living color. She is one of our strongest poets-Harvey Shapiro. In VOLATILE, Hahn's lyrical voice maintains its course through narratives ranging from quiet recollections of childhood to the sometimes unbearable horrors of the modern She watched her child starve. Watched her neighbor get clubbed to death. Watched another disappear./ (how the mind acts to what the body perceives)/ `Dissociation,' a state of altered consciousness. If I am on a freeway daydreaming and drive past the exit... ( a zuihitsu). Kimiko Hahn is the author of AIR POCKET and EARSHOT (both from Hanging Loose Press) and THE UNBEARABLE HEART (Kaya), all of which are available from SPD.