A Daily Glance
Eileen Tabios' The Thorn Rosary: Selected Prose Poems & New showcases some of the most significant work that Eileen has published over the last twelve years. While I've read many of the poems in the original books, it was interesting to read the selected pieces again, and this time I read them after reading Thomas Fink's excellent introduction to Eileen's poetry**. In picking the poems, Fink did a nice job of highlighting some of the most interesting aspects of Eileen's poetry and helps show her as a master of the prose poem. We see her move through postcolonial topics to personal lyrics. At times the poems have narrative clarity while at other times they seem abstract or opaque. They comment on the nature of poetry but also show us what it the prose poem is capable of through her use of myriad techniques. For someone unfamiliar with her work, this book would provide a nice first read.
**Reading this book was more than a simple glance--more like daily glances. As all of Eileen's projects, this one is large and complex.
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