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Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency
Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency | CHEN. CHEN
5 posts | 3 read | 2 to read
What happens when everything falls away, when those you call on in times of need are themselves calling out for rescue? Chen Chen continues his exploration of family, both blood and chosen, examining what one inherits and what one invents, as a queer Asian American living through an era of Trump, mass shootings and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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quote
monalyisha
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“come teach me a little bit
of nothing, in the dark
abundant hours.”

-from “The School of Night & Hyphens”

quote
monalyisha
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“Many of the things I miss are pretty silly. Pretty & silly, & I miss them deeply.”

“I think it‘s what any artist hopes for: not only to be remembered, but to be company.”

- from “Summer” [the sunflowers fall…]

quote
monalyisha
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“The mother cockroach says, “In the event of a sudden loss of cabin meaning, back-up meanings will drop from the overhead compartment…Please grab hold of a meaning & pull it to your face.”

- from “Summer” [Your emergency contact…]:

rubyslippersreads Oh, Gregor. 🪳 8mo
Aimeesue If only Gregor had back-up meanings, I feel his story would have turned out very differently. 🪳 🌈☁️ 8mo
36 likes3 comments
review
monalyisha
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Pickpick

Chen Chen has a way of criticizing people who criticize his poems with such a succinct and biting wit that you NEVER want to criticize one of his poems. However, I, too, would prefer that he not use the word “poop” or share so mindfully about his bowel movements. Some would label him immature for indulging in “potty talk.” Others would call the intensity of the taboo itself immature. What‘s not immature is the deep respect he has for language…👇🏻

monalyisha …how he parses it, and how he plays with it. He understands what (and who) is considered beautiful and what is not; what (and who) is considered intellectual, deep, and profound, and what is not; he embraces these ideas AND upends them to great effect. (edited) 8mo
monalyisha I enjoyed this collection less than When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities. Still, there are poems I loved (“I am reminded via email to resubmit my preferences for the schedule”, “The School of Fury”, “a small book of questions: chapter iii”, “Summer” [Your emergency contact…], “Summer” [The sunflowers fall…], “The School of Eternities”, & “我疼你”) — poems which have nary a whiff of the aforementioned taboo. (edited) 8mo
monalyisha I respect Chen Chen for being so very much himself. And when I grow up, I still want to be Chen‘s friend (even if it means that he‘d inevitably expose an invalid critique I made or something ignorant I said in one of his works; it‘d be so beyond worth it. Imagine watching just a single episode of Buffy by his side). 8mo
ChaoticMissAdventures I don't read much poetry (maybe one collection a year) but I love this title so much I keep thinking about it. 8mo
MatchlessMarie I also loved When I Grow Up I Want to be a List of Further Possibilities. I think the nature of anthologies is that there are usually going to be a few misses for some people. Thanks for putting this one on my radar I didn‘t know about it! 8mo
52 likes2 stack adds5 comments
blurb
monalyisha
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I‘m reading The Celebrants for my IRL book club, and Chen Chen‘s second book of poetry (by personal choice). I‘ll likely finish the novel today. Nothing definitive queued up to come after…but I love deciding what to read next, so that‘s never a problem!

Stay tuned. 😉
#WeekendReads

monalyisha I‘m technically reading the tagged, as well. But it‘s an audiobook and I don‘t anticipate traveling solo this weekend, so I shouldn‘t have the occasion to listen again until Monday. 9mo
BekaReid Oh, I need to read this volume of poetry. I read and loved Chen Chen's first volume! 9mo
monalyisha @BekaReid Same! I pre-ordered this volume, even. It came out in October of 2022 and I‘m *just* getting to it now. 🙈 9mo
42 likes3 comments