Brain Fever: Poems

Brain Fever: Poems

<p>Rooted in traditional Japanese aesthetics and meditations on contemporary neuroscience, a stunning new volume from an essential American poet.</p><br />Acclaimed as "one of the most fascinating female poets of our time" (<em>BOMB</em>), Kimiko Hahn is a shape-shifter, a poet who seeks novel forms for her utterly original subject matter and "stands as a welcome voice of experimentation and passion" (<em>Bloomsbury Review</em>). In <em>Brain Fever</em>, Hahn integrates the recent findings of science, ancient Japanese aesthetics, and observations from her life as a woman, wife, mother, daughter, and artist.<br /><p>Rooted in meditations on contemporary neuroscience, <em>Brain Fever</em> takes as its subject the mysteries of the human mind—the nature of dreams and memories, the possibly illusory nature of linear time, the complexity of conveying love to a child. In one poem, "A Bowl of Spaghetti," she cites a comparison that researchers draw between unraveling "the millions of miles of wires in the [human] brain" and "untangling a bowl of spaghetti," and thus she untangles a memory of her own: "I have an old photo: Rei in her high chair intently / picking out each strand to mash in her mouth. // Was she two? Was that sailor dress from mother? / Did I cook that sauce from scratch? If so, there was a carrot in the pot."</p><br /><p>Equally inspired by Sei Shonagon's tenth-century <em>Pillow Book</em> and the latest findings of cognitive research, <em>Brain Fever</em> is a thrilling blend of the timely and the timeless.</p>