The Ninjas

by Jane Yeh

Funny, heartbreaking, haunting: Jane Yeh's poems open windows onto utterly strange - and eerily familiar - worlds. Lonely ghosts hover around children on their way to school; lilies whisper among themselves, their heads 'filled with pollen and boredom'. Three solemn children in a Van Dyck portrait gaze out into their futures. Moving between high art and pop culture, Yeh creates richly textured poems, their lyrical beauty cut with a dark wit. How do we face death, how survive loss? What does it take to carry on? 'O tempura, O monkeys'.

Genres: Poetry

60 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Jane Yeh is a poet and journalist. Her first collection of poems, Marabou (Carcanet, 2005), was shortlisted for the Whitbread, Forward, and Aldeburgh poetry prizes. Her next collection, The Ninjas, was published by Carcanet in 2012. She was a judge for the 2013 National Poetry Competition and was named a Next Generation poet by the Poetry Book Society in 2014. Her poems have appeared in The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, The Nation (US), Poetry Review, and other journals, as well as in anthologies including The Best British Poetry 2012 and The Forward Book of Poetry 2013 and 2006.

Jane was educated at Harvard University and holds master’s degrees in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa and Manchester Metropolitan University. Before coming to the Open University, she was a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Kingston and Oxford Brookes universities, and was Co-Director of the MA in Creative Writing Programme at the latter. As a journalist, she writes on books, theatre, fashion, and sport for such publications as The Times Literary Supplement, Time Out, and The Village Voice (US).

Reviews

[Oliver Shrouder · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m sure this style reads as quaint to some but to me it comes across very empty and twee

[Margaryta · Rating 4 out of 5]

On one hand, there is something about this collection that feels very simplistic, maybe even childish. But on the other, Yeh writes about situations and details that feel so naturally humorous and dark that the simplicity feels very fitting, like the wonderful poem about ghosts or still others about androids, witches, and ninjas, imagining the voices of each of these creatures. "The Ninjas" probably isn't for everyone but again it is Yeh's mixture of starightforwardness and imagination that makes it a collection for me.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been talking about and thinking about the concept of play within poetry, and my stance is something along the lines of "if I'm not playing on the page, then I'm not writing the poem." Yeh's The Ninjas defines how playful poetry can still grip and glue and gut. Ninjas and robots and ferrets galore. Yeh is a circus tent where it's okay to laugh and also to cry.

[Shauna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humorous and insightful, especially into those that are often unseen...

[Libby Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

jane i adore you but mostly i live in fear

[Aurelio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poetry, as in poetry

Masterly crafted, full of intelligence and sense of humor, at the same time ironic and compassionate, it has eyes wide open to the world and the music of its forms.

[!Tæmbuŝu]

Reviewed by The Guardian (23 Nov 2012)

[Gretel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing and imaginative poems. Jane Yeh has stepped up a gear.