Poetry Review: Dear Diaspora
Diaspora… from Greek διασπορά, “dispersion,” from diaspeirein “to scatter about, disperse” (Online Etymological Dictionary)
Susan Nguyen’s poetry collection of this year, Dear Diaspora is, in a word, captivating. Dear Diaspora is greatly deserving of its Raz-Schumaker Prairie Schooner Book Prize—it shines in its genuineness. One cannot help but empathize with the young Suzi of the beginning—she is in all parts true, heartfelt, and honest, and she succeeds in painting a clear and compelling story of her childhood.
I find the overall structure of this collection perhaps one of its most interesting aspects—in the beginning, the reader is offered a window into Suzi’s childhood—we are guided through her mind, her experiences.
Hands in her pockets, touching the wings to each fingertip, / she wonders: would they still sing on the way to death, / and would it sound any different? – ‘Cicada Summer’
The second piece of this collection covers the Vietnamese diaspora (hence, the title of the collection: Dear Diaspora). And this second section is something of a jarring shift—we’re transported from the relatable Suzi to truly what I feel our American education has neglected to cover in depth—the treatment of Vietnamese people following the Vietnam War, and in many cases, their attempts to escape. This second section is brutal, in places difficult to stomach with its copious obituaries, interviews, and examples of forced confessions, but it is often these cold hard facts (especially those we may have previously been blind to) that are the most effective in getting meaning across—and is not that the end goal of poetry, getting meaning across?
Then, of course, the third section is a return to Suzi—we’re once again shown her experiences, allowed a view into her life and her mind, only by now she’s grown, and we meet an older, wiser, more reflective Suzi. I think that the collection as a whole can serve to represent Suzi’s being all together: her life and her experiences. The first and third parts, perhaps more obviously, but the inclusion of the second section is what makes this collection so influential. Her parents are Vietnamese immigrants—she is immersed in the Vietnamese diaspora—and these experiences, these stories are just as much a part of her.
I mean I never walked the land / where my father harvested seeds. / In his field, he waited for green / to bend into gold. – ‘Unending’
Nguyen also makes use of unconventional stylistic choices to make her poetry even more compelling—most poems in this collection are formatted as one might expect, but some are turned 90 degrees so that a reader has to turn the book to the side to clearly read them. Nguyen also allows for variation in style of her poetry, varying from traditionally formatted and laid-out poetry, to prose poetry. All of this, and more, of course, makes Dear Diaspora one of the most memorable collections of poetry that I have had the pleasure to read.
Dear Diaspora is published by The University of Nebraska Press and is available for purchase in paperback or as an ebook on their website, as well as in paperback through Bookshop.org.
