Motherlands

Pan’s lyrical debut considers poetry’s role in reflecting on the past, offering insights on migration, identity, and memory that illuminate Chinese cultural history. Pan illustrates cultural dislocation through yearning and sorrow, as exemplified in “To My Classless Motherland” (“I bottle kerosene at a factory, sticking/ labels with the firm hands you gave me”) and “Ultimatum” (“If I forget one character a day/ I will have forgotten Chinese/ by the end of 2042”). Pan’s ability to transform environmental devastation into a reflection of emotional turmoil is particularly powerful, as are his observations that situate a modern China shaped by both current and past events: “I couldn’t make it back to China; I built a shrine for my hometown; I live in that light” (“February: A Dictionary of History, Drinks, War, Culture, and Coronavirus”). Showcasing his formal versatility, Pan alternates between couplets, lengthy lined stanzas, tercets, and quatrains, creating unexpected juxtapositions as he investigates displacement, selfhood, and heritage. The result is a surprising and striking collection. (Sept.)