from Deracinations: Ten Sonograms
- from Deracinations:Ten Sonograms
10. Canon
An artsy chick, she dressedherself in "ethnic" patterned
skirts, read Plath, Sexton.She scoured the library stacks
for Asian poets, seekinga racial exemplar, an icon.
The sole result of her research,one anthology: Citrine Candles –
cherry trees, cheongsams,celadon teacups: "Orientalist
cliché," she snorted in disdain(she had recently read Said…
or at least the introduction.)At her high school commencement,
she received the Agnes Lynch StarrettPoetry Award–the American
Heritage Dictionaryand a hundred-dollar check.
Then off to college. "Write whatyou know," said her workshop instructor.
"Here's some Seamus Heaney."She tried writing about her dad, [End Page 107]
her childhood, family dinners (insteadof "ggim," she wrote "nori").
She studied critical race theory,took part in a sit-in to coerce
the university to teach Asian-American studies. (End result:
No dice.) She dated an initiateof a college secret society,
then unearthed his cherishedstash of yellow-fever skinflicks
("Naked Asian Naughty HottiesTake It in the Face!!!"). It's erotica,
not just porno, he insistedwhen she ditched his ass,
What, it's not politically correctto have a type? In her post-colonialism
seminar, she was taught to distrustthe commodification industry,
attempts to package Asiannessfor Western consumption.
As an artist of color, always askyourself: Who is my audience?
the prof cautioned. Is this authenticinteriority? Am I self-othering?
Her new suitor was concentratingin English (but pre-med!): ardent, [End Page 108]
sincere. For the holiday season,(nondenominational)
he gifted her a signed editionof Best American Poetry (1996)
(editor: Adrienne Rich.)Omigod, I adore her! Thanks!
In the introduction, Rich critiquedthe legions of columnar
poems in which the anecdoteof an ethnic parent or
grandparent is rehearsedin a generic voice
and format, whateverthe cultural setting. She shut
the reader, cringing. A rushof blood tinted her cheeks,
but (since she used self-tanner)wasn't noticeable from the outside. [End Page 109]
Monica Youn is the author of Blackacre (Graywolf Press 2016), which won the William Carlos Williams Award of the Poetry Society of America. It was also shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Kingsley Tufts Award, longlisted for the National Book Award, and named one of the best poetry books of 2016 by the New York Times, the Washington Post, and BuzzFeed. Her previous book Ignatz (Four Way Books 2010) was a finalist for the National Book Award. She has been awarded the Levinson Prize from the Poetry Foundation, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Witter Bytter Fellowship from the Library of Congress, and a Stegner Fellowship among other honors. The daughter of Korean immigrants, and a member of the Racial Imaginary Instititute, she teaches at Princeton and in the MFA programs at NYU and Columbia.
