Beyond Heart Mountain

by Lee Ann Roripaugh

Lee Ann Roripaugh has been hailed by Ishmael Reed as "one of the brightest talents" writing poetry today. In this collection, she gives voice to the Japanese immigrants of the American West. In an unforgiving land of dirt and sagebrush, mothers labor to teach their children of the ocean, old men are displaced by geography and language, and the ghosts of Hiroshima clamor for peace. Lee Ann Roripaugh's exquisitely crafted poems rise from the pages of Beyond Heart Mountain burdened with memory and pain, yet converting these to powerful art--art that is like "the pattern of kimono found burned into a woman after Hiroshima . . . almost too beautiful, too horrible . . . to bear." Remember to raise
bright orbs of rice-paper lanterns
by the goldfish pond,


so they can watch for me
with the yellow, unblinking gaze
of nocturnal things . . .
--from "Peony Lantern"

Genres: Poetry, Asian American

70 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1999

About the author

Lee Ann Roripaugh is the author of four volumes of poetry, the most recent of which, Dandarians, was released by Milkweed Editions in September 2014. Her second volume, Year of the Snake (Southern Illinois University Press), was named winner of the Association of Asian American Studies Book Award in Poetry/Prose for 2004, and her first book, Beyond Heart Mountain (Penguin Books), was a 1998 winner of the National Poetry Series. The recipient of a 2003 Archibald Bush Foundation Individual Artist Fellowship, she was also named the 2004 winner of the Prairie Schooner Strousse Award, the 2001 winner of the Frederick Manfred Award for Best Creative Writing awarded by the Western Literature Association, and the 1995 winner of the Randall Jarrell International Poetry Prize.
Her short stories have been shortlisted as stories of note in the Pushcart Prize anthologies, and two of her essays have been shortlisted as essays of note for the Best American Essays anthology. Her poetry and short stories have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Roripaugh is currently a Professor of English at the University of South Dakota, where she serves as Director of Creative Writing and Editor-in-Chief of South Dakota Review. She is also a faculty mentor for the University of Nebraska low-residency M.F.A. in Writing, and served as a 2012 Kundiman faculty mentor alongside Li-Young Lee and Srikanth Reddy.

Reviews

[Bill on GR Sabbatical · Rating 4 out of 5]

The middle section of this collection, Heart Mountain, 1943, was especially poignant to me, evoking the afternoon I spent walking the Heart Mountain Relocation Center site near Powell, Wyoming in May. Each of these ten poems bears the name of one of the Japanese-American prisoners held there during World War II.

My feet, my mind, become numb
from standing in line all day-
lines to eat, shower, shit
in the dirty outdoor benjos.

~ from Kimiko Ozawa

Last month the watchtower guards
brought in a little boy found
tangled in barbed wire the way
antelope sometimes get caught.
He trembled all night.

~ from Chikako Okano

Elsewhere, Roripaugh particularizes Japanese-American experience throughout the American West in acutely observed moments including hunting elk as a young girl, preparing seafood, living as a hibakusha, i.e. survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, and more.

I can tell you
poems so sad the tears will sting
your eyes like bees

[Chris Blocker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beyond Heart Mountain is a beautiful collection of poems full of voice. These poems are at their absolute best when they display the two worlds and cultures close to the author's heart. Roripaugh has a wonderful grasp of language and employs it here to create a series of poems that are thought-provoking, fun, and heartbreaking. An excellent debut collection; I look forward to reading more from the author.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Each of the poems in this collection contains a beautiful miniature world. Each are absolutely full of surprising yet perfect images, language with an inherent sense of music, and devastating emotional force. The emotional tone of the poems run the gamut, but the poems are hysterical when funny, velveteen when warm, and brutally piercing when sad. I feel haunted by the way that the poems moved me and privileged in how much I enjoyed reading them.

[Tyler Julian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this collection. The poetry is beautiful and nuanced. The story dives deeply, almost biographically into an often forgotten (intentionally forgotten?) page in American history (Japanese-American internment camps) and rises from that darkness with a contemporary speaker that recreates herself with love and power. This is a must read for those interested in the modern West and the legacy of American expansion.

[Allison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid collection that I found on my library’s free shelf. This collection is what I love in poetry.

Sealey Challenge 25/31

[Kamea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not know what was going on 85% of the time, but it was very pretty!

[Joann Schatz · Rating 5 out of 5]

“And if my favorite caterpillar should accidentally drop from my kimono sleeve and brush past your face - and you do not let him break open against the pebbles, but unfold your fan in time to catch his fall - then I will be the praying mantis, who wears a mask on her wings to scare off birds. I will pull away the mantle from my face, and if you are not afraid of my fierce eyebrows, my disheveled hair, my unblackened teeth that give me a white, barbaric grin, I will feed you tender leaves, nestle and stroke you in the palm of my hand until you are plump with nectar. Kawamushi, my hairy caterpillar. My honeybee. My centipede.”

[Alison Zak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Favorite poem: Fish Wife

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heard her read from this last night (6 April 2011) at her poetry reading at Briar Cliff University.

14 April 2011

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope to write more about it on my blog soon. But as a first pass after a glass of wine after a long day ...

I found this an excellent cultural view into assorted Japanese and Japanese American experiences. There are poems from the viewpoint of those incarcerated in the American internment camps of WWII, from that of atomic bomb survivors, and from first generation Japanese American kids growing up in the American West. There are also exquisitely tasty poems about eating. Erotically charged poetry with an especial Japanese bent, that is, highly subtle yet potently erotic, are also prevalent. I am definitely looking forward to reading her other two more recent books.

[Robert Alicea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This vibrant and vivid set of poems set have flowery language with injustice as a backdrop. The poems build upon one another as the pages become like slides: small paintings of an emotion or a snapshot of history one can hear.
The poems (and some short prose) are set in the parts. if you've just picked up this collection, read the first poem. it's truly the perfect beginning to the motif in the series. And then read the last poem. The staunch reality will set in and you will want to read everything in between.

Roripaugh truly brings in cultural heritage of Japanese Americans by tangentially discussing some aspects and compleletly immersing the reader in other. The balance, I found to be perfect.

A quick, but deep read for all interested in the human spirit.

[Annette Boehm · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely collection of poems about Roripaugh's family history and how it blends with US history. The book covers three generations: Her grandparents, parents, and herself, each having widely different experiences. The first generation moves to the US from Japan, the next is sent to an internment camp (Heart Mountain), the last is contemporary, still in America, without having lost Japanese culture in her life completely. The poems are full of interesting, lovely images - one of my favorites is that of a child how has her hair washed and thinks of it as the long, sleek arms of a black octopus. Highly recommended.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another (poetry) writing mentor and dissertation committee member

[Malcolm Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the detail here, the voice. I particularly liked the middle section, which is a series of persona poems, each of whom is an enternee at a camp for Japanese-Americans in WWII.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

More beautiful poetry from Roripaugh. This earlier volume is more direct, leaner... A different voice than ...Dangerous Year, but equally worth reading. A fantastic poet.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow, these are amazing, i eagerly anticipate anything this author publishes.