Primordial

The insistent and formally experimental third collection from Vang (Yellow Rain) turns her incisive poetic eye to the critically endangered saola—a bovine native to Laos and Vietnam—to explore themes of colonialism, war, and extinction. “I am a secret that exists,” she writes in “Evolution, Absence,” which draws compelling resonances between the plight of the Hmong people and the threats facing saolas, also known as Asian unicorns for their elusiveness. Moving skillfully between human and animal worlds, the speaker’s voice captures a state of psychic restlessness: “sometimes I want to cut loose/ the animal in my cortex, tear into this ache. There is/ no such thing as new pain,/ only the same pain recycled a/ hundred ways.” Elsewhere, the speaker reflects on her pregnancy, reaching toward the saola in pursuit of connection: “I search my being for grace I share/ with you, extent of my presence/ from feet to head, incision under my belly/ from where my baby emerged.” Vang’s poems are visually stirring, conjuring diagrams and word clouds that, on occasion, feel overextended. Nonetheless, this is an ambitious and impassioned contribution to contemporary poetry. (Mar.)