Afterland by Mai Der Vang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Just finished reading the most evocative, powerful poetry collection ever, AFTERLAND by Mai Der Vang. She writes about the Hmong population-the lament of her people and the songs of loss and grief that come with war. Each poem sliced through my skin in its silent, grotesque and powerful imagery as these resilient refugees struggled to escape and survive. Every image is staggering. In the poem "Light from a Burning Citadel she begins:

"now I am a Siamese rosewood on fire.
I am a skin of sagging curtain.
I am a bone of bullet hole.
I am locked in the ash oven of a forest."

So many tears shed for the grief for her people and you, too, will shed those tears. What a powerhouse of language!

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