This Could Be You Composing Me

Whether in Japan, Canada or Europe, or whether passing butter across a table, having a lover's quarrel, being beaten up by a parent for disobedience or neglected and punished by another parent for doing just as she feels is right, Guenther knows how to engage the reader in everyday moments most people miss --- and translates them into poems that cut to the quick. Her imagery is singular, rarely has one seen anything like this from the point of view of a poet as a child for example -- one who was raised multilingually as well as multi-"culturally" in the true sense of word, someone who in her poetry encounters people on their own terms and embraces difference as something that is in itself natural, normal and yet exotic. Gedichte in englischer Sprache (Kanada) Readers often shy away from poetry because they believe it to be too elitist, too complicated, something to be "handled with care." In this book, however, the poems are about everyday life and objects such as toothbrushes or smartphones, spanning a wide range of topics, experiences and emotions. The poet was born and raised in Japan so various locations in that country form the basis of her work in which narrative and imagery play an integral role. Though not consecutively, the onus then moves to Canada, another of the poet's homelands, before it swerves off to Europe. Enjoy the read.

Whether in Japan, Canada or Europe, or whether passing butter across a table, having a lover's quarrel, being beaten up by a parent for disobedience or neglected and punished by another parent for doing just as she feels is right, Guenther knows how to engage the reader in everyday moments most people miss --- and translates them into poems that cut to the quick. Her imagery is singular, rarely has one seen anything like this from the point of view of a poet as a child for example -- one who was raised multilingually as well as multi-"culturally" in the true sense of word, someone who in her poetry encounters people on their own terms and embraces difference as something that is in itself natural, normal and yet exotic. Gedichte in englischer Sprache (Kanada) Readers often shy away from poetry because they believe it to be too elitist, too complicated, something to be "handled with care." In this book, however, the poems are about everyday life and objects such as toothbrushes or smartphones, spanning a wide range of topics, experiences and emotions. The poet was born and raised in Japan so various locations in that country form the basis of her work in which narrative and imagery play an integral role. Though not consecutively, the onus then moves to Canada, another of the poet's homelands, before it swerves off to Europe. Enjoy the read.