What the Fortune Teller Didn't Say

by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Geok-lin Shirley Lim

Written over the last decade, these poems include memories of the author's early childhood in Malaysia, immigration to America, and travel throughout the world, and affirmations of motherhood and maturity in the New World. From her background as a Malaysian Chinese later assimilated into Western culture, she has emerged with her own voice, combining bittersweet laughter and realistic affirmation. This unique voice establishes her as an important poet.
"Here are the lines of loss--of family, country, self--yet what is lost is found, and these poems probe a woman's many and changing truths in language that will deepen the vision of every reader. "--Alicia Ostriker

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 1998

About the author

Lim is a professor in the English Department at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has also taught internationally at the National University of Singapore, the National Institute Education of Nanyang Technological University, and was the Chair Professor at the University of Hong Kong where she also taught poetry and creative writing. She has authored several books of poems, short stories, and criticism, and serves as editor and co-editor of numerous scholarly works. Lim is a cross-genre writer, although she identifies herself as a poet.

Reviews

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here is one example:

Learning to love America
BY SHIRLEY GEOK-LIN LIM

because it has no pure products

because the Pacific Ocean sweeps along the coastline
because the water of the ocean is cold
and because land is better than ocean

because I say we rather than they

because I live in California
I have eaten fresh artichokes
and jacaranda bloom in April and May

because my senses have caught up with my body
my breath with the air it swallows
my hunger with my mouth

because I walk barefoot in my house

because I have nursed my son at my breast
because he is a strong American boy
because I have seen his eyes redden when he is asked who he is
because he answers I don’t know

because to have a son is to have a country
because my son will bury me here
because countries are in our blood and we bleed them

because it is late and too late to change my mind
because it is time.

[Owen Domingo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think no one has ever said a word about this book, and I think the TIME. HAS. COME. The author’s musings as a child, mother, wife, immigrant, poet, and as a stranger encapsulate the mundane into something very striking and oddly relatable.

[ryo narasaki · Rating 4 out of 5]

"learning to love america" is a section heading and one of the poems, in which she writes:

because i have seen his eyes redden when he is asked who he is/ ...because it is late and too late to change my mind...

this seems so poignant and simple it makes me sad... also a little frustrated.

fave: "riding into california"

[Wren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was a good collection of poetry. Only loved 2 poems