Percussing the Thinking Jar

by Maw Shein Win

 A collection of dreamlike poetry, accompanied by ink drawings, reflecting on the experiences of living in an aging body.
 
With her latest collection, Maw Shein Win deftly braids together the pleasures, pains, and anxieties of living in an aging body, revealing how a mind can log thoughts and observations. Win employs new poetic forms to invite her readers into realms that are both deeply personal and universal, rendered with dreamlike imagery and surprising humor. Reflecting on our strange times and the atmospheric undercurrents of chaos and disintegration, Percussing the Thinking Jar is a hypnotic book and invites the reader into conversation with their own vulnerability and resilience. Throughout the book, sumi ink drawings by artist Mark Dutcher echo the rhythms of Win’s poetry.
 

184 pages, Paperback

Published November 19, 2024

Reviews

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is getting all my love because it is wise and wild eyed and soft and cynical. The music makes me feel so present, so alive as a reader. Just one word pairing gets all the blood in my head warmer. It’s also the perfect amount of inside and outside, private and public (for me). I’m simultaneously reading Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes and feel the same intimacy, the same vibes knitting into me new ways to be. Both books subvert authority, working on the knots quietly, deftly, defiantly. I’m a sucker for that. It’s an aspirational wisdom, a porous and vulnerable wisdom, and I’m all in. Chips, say hello to the table. Savor each clink.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry