Common Grace: Poems

by Aaron Caycedo-Kimura

The first major poetry collection from an award-winning student of Robert Pinsky, exploring the inherited trauma within his Japanese American family, his life as an artist, and his bond with his wife

In 65 lyric poems organized into a triptych, Common Grace offers an important new lens into Asian American life, art, and love.

Part 1, “Soul Sauce,” describes the poet’s life as a practicing visual artist, taking us from an early encounter with an inkwell at Roseland Elementary in 1969 to his professional outdoor easel perched on Long Island Sound.

Part 2, ‘Ubasute,” is named after the mythical Japanese practice wherein “a grown son lifts / his aged mother on his back, / delivers her to a mountain, / leaves her to die.” This concept frames a wrenching portrayal of his parents’ decline and death, reaching back to his father’s time in the American internment camps of WWII and his mother’s memories of the firebombing of Tokyo. It also anchors the 2 outer parts in the racial trauma and joys passed down from his parents.

Part 3, “Gutter Trees,” gives us affecting love poems to his wife and the creative lives they’ve built together.

Ranging in scope from private moments to the sweep of familial heritage, Caycedo-Kimura’s poems are artful, subtle, but never quiet.

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Paperback

Published October 4, 2022

About the author

Aaron Caycedo-Kimura is a writer, painter, and cartoonist. He is the author of Ubasute, which won the 2020 Slapering Hol Press Chapbook Competition, and the author of the full-length collection Common Grace, forthcoming from Beacon Press in Fall 2022. His poetry has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Poet Lore, DMQ Review, Tule Review, Louisiana Literature, The Night Heron Barks, and elsewhere. Aaron earned his MFA in creative writing from Boston University and is a recipient of a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship in Poetry. He is also the author and illustrator of Text, Don’t Call: An Illustrated Guide to the Introverted Life (TarcherPerigee, 2017).

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Reviews

[Carla]

These poems are infused with love and an unsentimental acknowledgment of history’s injustices. This author is fearless with direct emotion, as in“When You’re the Son” in which he must break down the hospital bed “so you mother won’t have to smell it.” He reminds us to be grateful for the easy-to-forget basics of morality — his father: “the husband who never cheated/the father who never struck me.”

[baguette · Rating 4 out of 5]

i tried to come up with something profound to say about this book but honestly i don't have the proper words. so many of these poems hit me like a truck. very heartbreakingly beautiful.

[{ rosina } · Rating 4 out of 5]

my mom gave me this book for Christmas; remind me to thank her

[Jeffrey Yamaguchi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Common Grace is a wonderful poetry collection by Aaron Caycedo-Kimura from Beacon Press. My favorite poems: Burial, marking territory, Nest, and If this were the day. The collection, which showcases a wide range of forms — from prose poems to one-liner haiku — is infused with memory, family history, anguish, connection, and the astonishments of everyday life. Highly recommended, most definitely worth seeking out and adding to your stack of poetry books.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
This collection was a beautiful and moving experience, filled with heartfelt verses that resonated deeply. Each poem felt like a glimpse into something raw and true, making it a joy to read and reflect on!

[Derek White · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really powerful poems about family and specifically trauma after their passing. I like how it started with poems relating to the authors parents and his upbringing, then onto their passing, and finally onto the life he has with his wife. It feels like a collection thats taken a lifetime to perfect