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Shadow and Refrain: Poems and Translations
Alex Wong's first collection, Poems Without Irony (2016), was a book that took nothing for granted, that broke through to the particularity of things and experiences, distrusting and defying generality. Elaine Feinstein celebrated the 'extraordinarily new rhetoric for his love poetry' whilst David Morley commended his 'linguistic finesse'.
Shadow and Refrain presses on, less coyly, with similar themes and a tenacious syntax that gorgeously persists until it has secured its quarry, the long sentences - sometimes running through several stanzas - asking to be read aloud to be secured. As the poet insists, 'These poems are designed to be read using the mouth' - for sensation even if not for fully voiced sound. This book, like the first, is troubled by the difficulty of frank expression in the more private nooks of day-to-day life, and is driven to find curious routes into the centres of experiences that resist simpler articulation. Some poems are imagined addresses to inaccessible friends, or engagements with significant places and objects. Intimacy is repeatedly probed, the processes by which it can be attained and lost, the preoccupations it brings with it and leaves behind.
Shadow and Refrain presses on, less coyly, with similar themes and a tenacious syntax that gorgeously persists until it has secured its quarry, the long sentences - sometimes running through several stanzas - asking to be read aloud to be secured. As the poet insists, 'These poems are designed to be read using the mouth' - for sensation even if not for fully voiced sound. This book, like the first, is troubled by the difficulty of frank expression in the more private nooks of day-to-day life, and is driven to find curious routes into the centres of experiences that resist simpler articulation. Some poems are imagined addresses to inaccessible friends, or engagements with significant places and objects. Intimacy is repeatedly probed, the processes by which it can be attained and lost, the preoccupations it brings with it and leaves behind.
175 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 27, 2021
1 person want to read
About the author
Alex Wong
50 books13 followersAlex Wong is the head copywriter for an advertising media agency specializing in custom websites and internet marketing.
He's trained with some of the top copywriters and internet marketers around and has learned the best methods, tricks, and strategies to persuade customers. He loves bringing people’s visions to life with the power of words.
A few other interesting things you might find interesting...
· He's the first person in his family to graduate from university (with a degree in psychology).
· Before becoming a copywriter, he's worked as a waiter, customer service agent, telemarketer, animator, tutor and English teacher. Surprisingly, all of these jobs have helped him to become a better copywriter.
· If he could meet one anyone it would be Bruce Lee. You couldn’t ask for a better role model
He's trained with some of the top copywriters and internet marketers around and has learned the best methods, tricks, and strategies to persuade customers. He loves bringing people’s visions to life with the power of words.
A few other interesting things you might find interesting...
· He's the first person in his family to graduate from university (with a degree in psychology).
· Before becoming a copywriter, he's worked as a waiter, customer service agent, telemarketer, animator, tutor and English teacher. Surprisingly, all of these jobs have helped him to become a better copywriter.
· If he could meet one anyone it would be Bruce Lee. You couldn’t ask for a better role model
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February 13, 2025
(did not finish) an incredibly wordy poetry book that i feel as though tries to act intelligent when it’s not, incredibly complicated with what i find has little meaning or analysis. is an anthology that is meant to be read out loud which i was unable to do at the time of reading, don’t think i would have bothered reading it out loud even if i could
Displaying 1 of 1 review