Love Poem to Ginger & Other Poems

An alluring gem of a chapbook Love Poem to Ginger & Other Poems: poetry & paintings follows Mong-Lan's much-lauded Love Poem to Tofu & Other Poems. An absolute treasure tapestry of poems and paintings this pocket-sized edition calls joy by its true name and makes pleasure an art. Mong-Lan's poems are fresh and real as a street full of the seriousness of pleasure. She has the same sense of joy that Kenneth Koch loved in the courage to sing happiness of St.-John Perse. The courage of Frank O'Hara who said that the smallest idea in one's own head was better than an old idea in some other brain. . . . The Chinese speak of the three perfections: poetry painting and calligraphy. But Mong-Lan speaks of the great imperfections that are better for being so. Her poems are full of the bright primaries of her brushstrokes. . . . I praise these poems of praise which collapse distance and makes us feel as O'Hara seemed to say poetry is just a telephone call away.-David Shapiro