Forest of Names: 108 Meditations

Title: Forest of Names: 108 Meditations
Author: Ian Boyden
ISBN: 9780819579942
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Published: 2020
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English
Condition: Used: Near Fine
Excellent, unmarked copy with little wear and tight binding. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.

Q 1658740

Publisher Description:

Poems illuminate a hidden landscape in the names of children killed in the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake

How do we honor the dead? How do we commit them to memory? And how do we come to terms with the way they died? To start, we can name them. When schools collapsed in an earthquake in China, burying over 5,000 children, the government brutally prevented parents from learning who had died. Artist Ai Weiwei, at risk to his own safety, gathered the names of these children, and their names are the subject of this book. Each poem is a poetic meditation on the image and concept suggested by the etymology in the Chinese characters. This act of poetic translation is both a heartbreaking tribute to people whose names have been erased, and a healing meditation on how language suggests a path forward.

July 30
Tiānwēi

Celestial Awe

He carried no iron into battle.
When he lifted his hand,
he brandished the sky.