Overpour

by Jane Wong

Poetry. Asian American Studies. Jane Wong's powerful first book OVERPOUR weaves together seemingly disparate topics such as war and child's play, language and exile, debt, animals and nature. By doing so, Wong creates a space between for the reader to enter. At the same time, by creating this space, she makes a space for possibility. For instance, in her poem "Filed Notes Toward War," Wong writes "The war is not over. / The streets are lined with little lamps of snow, / melting. Water pours without end. / There is a swan bathing in my mouth." Montage-like, the poems are also a kind of philosophy by which I mean they are curious. They ask questions of the world. Not afraid of being earnest, Wong's voice is both playful and cerebral, weaving in and out of the world its wars and its violence, poverty and alienation making a beautiful and smart, strange and new, word elixir."

Genres: Poetry

90 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2016

Reviews

[Frankie Tran]

As if a cook, an archeologist, & an archivist walk into the bar of maternal devotion as self-awareness & care-taking of family history. These poems are like snow, in that each moment accumulates & melts on the tongue, transforming into entire banquets of love/longing (the anticipated seasons or nostalgic cycles of), recorded in timeless detail.

[S P · Rating 4 out of 5]

'On a warm day,
a bottle expands, loses
its shape. Until certainty breaks
in half, I refuse
to move. The tulips here
are not for beauty
and thus must be killed.
We can't seem to forget the purpose,
the reason for it. Outside, the scaffolding
of a building leaves a marble
victory. I look into
my neighbours window and see
myself, drawing a bath.
What could I have ever wanted?'

(from 'Familiar Stranger', p15)

[maddie marko · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The mushrooms left to soak overnight / Have doubled / I am not ashamed to say / I ate them all / At once, my eyes shining with mold / To light my loathsome way” (from “Debts”).
“I want / everything to spring up from the ground: grace, / forgiveness” (from “Pastoral Power”).
“When we turn to each face other / it’s a choice” (from “Pastoral Power”).
“The war is not over. / The streets are lined with little lamps of snow, / melting. Water pours without end. / There is a swan bathing in my mouth. / I have made a mess of it all” (from “Field Notes Toward War”).
"To live like a pill bug, / I curled into myself. / I greeted knee after knee. / Surely, it's too bad to want company. / To want this curling of my legs / around anyone's face" (from "Twenty-Nine").
“So, lean against me, I want to say. Take my / right hand, my right wrist - it braces against / sorrow. I could row us away. / My good arm, my good daughter” (from “No Need For The Moon To Shine In It”).

[Richard Chiem · Rating 5 out of 5]

the best poetry collection of 2016

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not that it's bad, it just doesn't strike with me and feels a bit repetitive without making sense to me. Other people have and will enjoy it.

[Eric Suchyta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jane Wong's poetry collection Overpour is challenging, but not uninteresting read. Her style is somewhat open-ended, where meanings to the verse aren't entirely clear on first inspection, and even upon careful consideration, it's almost impossible to resolve singular meaning to every word.

This collection feels like a montage, both at the intra- and inter-poem levels. Wong stitches together "scenes" that develop something of a flow to the work as a whole. Topics meander about: alienation, death, poverty, ambiguity of multiple selves. But they maintain seemingly close connection through repetition of symbols: ash, snow, blood, ants, etc.

Overall, this is one I'd be more likely to recommend to the more experienced poetry reader. It was right at the cusp of my poetic acumen. Even though I know I won't have picked up everything, I still found enough elements to enjoy and may return the poems again in time.

[Paul Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

I COULD SAY this is a debut poetry collection that reflects a second-generation youth and adolescence in an immigrant family…and that would be accurate…but it would fail to convey how remarkable this book is.

When I say, “ debut poetry collection that reflects a second-generation youth and adolescence in an immigrant family,” do you think of a gothic hallucinatory trip streaked with black humor and populated with raccoons? Probably not. The book’s Amy Tan dimension is overshadowed by its Shirley-Jackson-on-mushrooms dimension.

It may just be due to the Action Books connection, but I sometimes thought of Lara Glenum, or early Ariana Reines.

The book’s most audacious gesture, I’d say, are the five poems, interspersed throughout the volume, in the voice of the poet’s mother at different ages (24, 30, 29, 43, 25). Amy Tan channeling Plath?

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The universe of Jane Wong’s poetry is either kaleidoscopic or on a dimensional plane just millimeters from our own. Familiar objects come into view, crystal-clear and comforting, even as they bathe in a unique perspective, a voice almost familiar yet personal and revelatory. Case and point:

I hold a flashlight to your organs.
A liver should not be transparent.
I hold your liver like a dead, stinking shark.
I cradle your fins, your roving eye.
I cut slivers of my heart, onion-thin, good for any salad.

Wong hands us some of the most passionate and human surreality out there today.

[Tenicia Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hands down my favorite poetry book ever. As a previous Creative Writing major, I am very particular about the poetry I read & Jane’s writing hits home with every line. The vivid imagery and emotions she invokes is unparalleled. I read this book at least once a year and have been counting down until her next.

[Patricia N. McLaughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Startling images and associations

Favorite Poems
“Elegy for the Selves”

[Sara Holden · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

[sofia ✴︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

i adore each & every poem in this book

[Tiffany L. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stylish book of poetry. A couple solid poems: “Elegy for the Selves,” “Forty-Three,” and “Ceremony.” Helps me see Chinese culture in a new way—and that is saying a lot.

[Nicole Hardina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jane Wong's debut collection, Overpour, is utterly lovely, clear-eyed, and unafraid. Images accrete, becoming experience. The reader looks closely at the observable world and finds herself not only engaged with the speakers of the poems, but in my case, in dialogue with my own past and present selves. I left this book eager to return to it.

[Candace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cutting, visceral, memory.