Swan Song

by Armen Davoudian

Poetry. California Interest. Middle Eastern Studies. LGBTQIA Studies. Winner of the 2020 Frost Place Chapbook Competition. A swan song is a song of after a lifetime of silence, the legend goes, the mute swan breaks into song just before leaving this world for good. Armen Davoudian's SWAN SONG chronicles what it's like to take leave of a home, a country, a past life. In their search for a home in language, these poems combine the formal resources of English and Persian poetry, turning the immigrant's permanent sense of loss and rootlessness, the gay person's sense of alienation, into artistic assets--positions of outsiderhood from which to witness and record.

Genres: Poetry

First published October 1, 2020

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poems are beautiful and precise. I enjoyed the references to birds, flowers, and the natural world. I’m also glad to know that he has a full-length poetry collection coming in 2024.

[Eva · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can read 'Swan Song' first, or 'The Palace of Forty Pillars' by Armen Davoudian, but the point here is: read them both. Read anything this brilliant writer releases. 'Swan Song' is shorter and the themes within are on a smaller scale. At the same time, Davoudian does things with words and turns of phrase, invoking things that readers from his background will know about in an acute way. I can't describe how moving, affective, and brilliant this book of poems is. I am very glad it won the Frost Place Chapbook Competition and I hope that the authors wins many more accolades for his future work.

[Sarkis Antonyan · Rating 3 out of 5]

i want to meet him

[Caroline · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I can't remember where I read Davoudian's poem "Alibi," but that was the poem that inspired me to check out the rest of the chapbook. There are a lot of elements here that I appreciated (the physicality and musicality, the swan theme, a certain air of mystery), but I also felt like there was something missing, or perhaps a certain distance I was unable to bridge. Looking forward to reading more from this poet in the future though.

[Burgi Zenhaeusern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry of which I'd definitely like to know where it goes from here. Its craft reminds me of art academy brilliance, great potential in the starting blocks that is. I particularly loved the first poem "Black Garlic".