Lovely, excitingly creative and evocative poems, covering a range of subjects and settings from Marco Polo outsmarting Time in Venice to the movement of glaciers in New Zealand…OK, no, I can’t do this. I read this book over a year ago and I had to return it to the library so I made photocopies of my two favorite poems, “Venice” and “Glacier.” I intended to write the review (and blog post) while the collection was still fresh in my mind, but...that didn’t happen.

I like these two poems very much. They are literate, dense with allusion and rich with imagery, but I can’t really write a review of the entire collection on the strength of two poems. The publisher’s blurb says that “Every poem in this collection offers a stepping stone or resting place on what is essentially a diasporic odyssey,” which sounds about right.

I've included some excerpts and links to more of Mishra's work on my blog, Around the World in 2000 Books. ( )