Distributed for CavanKerry Press
A Half-Life
A poetry collection centered on the Korean American experience.
The term “half-life” is used to describe radioactive decay, pharmaceutical drugs, rocks, the atoms of our human bodies, and even technological products. Using this idea as a starting point, A Half-Life provides a rare glimpse into the Korean American experience. The poems utilize the literal metaphor of the highway as the intersecting point of America, Asia, and the globe, to reflect on the emotional and physical journeys many Asian Americans take. From Chicago to Seattle, from the biographical to the fictional, from current times to the Korean and Vietnam wars, A Half-Life covers the joy and pain, the probable and improbable, the individual and communal—the cultural histories we all share.
The term “half-life” is used to describe radioactive decay, pharmaceutical drugs, rocks, the atoms of our human bodies, and even technological products. Using this idea as a starting point, A Half-Life provides a rare glimpse into the Korean American experience. The poems utilize the literal metaphor of the highway as the intersecting point of America, Asia, and the globe, to reflect on the emotional and physical journeys many Asian Americans take. From Chicago to Seattle, from the biographical to the fictional, from current times to the Korean and Vietnam wars, A Half-Life covers the joy and pain, the probable and improbable, the individual and communal—the cultural histories we all share.
![CavanKerry Press image](/dam/ucp/books/publishers/20200929-CavanKerry_Horiz_2C-200.jpg)
Reviews
Table of Contents
I. Sovereign Asymmetries
A Circle of Fragments
Existential Poem #1
Existential Poem #2
Existential Poem #3
Gravity’s Pull
Spring in Seattle
Lullaby
II. Poems for Harry
A Young Boy’s Life
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Growing Up Harry: Harry’s Jr. High Linguistic Lessons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The Edge
Harry’s Playboys
1.
2.
3.
4.
Cheers for Harry
1.
2. From the Bleachers
3. The Walk Home
The Locker Room
1.
2.
The Ballerina
After the Concert
Harry Meets the Father
Praise for Prozac: Notes from Harry’s Journal
III. Journeys of a Hyphen
A Love Poem for My Wife
The Apology
Entropy
1.
2.
Chicago Highway Poems
1. Lake Shore Drive
2. 94 East
3. I-90
Indiana Highway Poems
1. I-65
2. Route 231
3. Lafayette, IN
The Hyphen
A Circle of Fragments
Existential Poem #1
Existential Poem #2
Existential Poem #3
Gravity’s Pull
Spring in Seattle
Lullaby
II. Poems for Harry
A Young Boy’s Life
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Growing Up Harry: Harry’s Jr. High Linguistic Lessons
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
The Edge
Harry’s Playboys
1.
2.
3.
4.
Cheers for Harry
1.
2. From the Bleachers
3. The Walk Home
The Locker Room
1.
2.
The Ballerina
After the Concert
Harry Meets the Father
Praise for Prozac: Notes from Harry’s Journal
III. Journeys of a Hyphen
A Love Poem for My Wife
The Apology
Entropy
1.
2.
Chicago Highway Poems
1. Lake Shore Drive
2. 94 East
3. I-90
Indiana Highway Poems
1. I-65
2. Route 231
3. Lafayette, IN
The Hyphen
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