Celebrating the New Year With Asian American Poetry

January 23rd, 2012 marked the coming of the-later-than-Solar-but-just-as-important Lunar New Year, more commonly known as "Chinese New Year" (though it is celebrated in many other cultures). In honor of both the solar and lunar calendars, I've put together a slideshow featuring 12 Asian American poets. These poets all come from various ethnic backgrounds, and while I am well aware that not all of these cultures celebrate the Lunar New Year, I thought that this would nonetheless be an appropriate opportunity to showcase Asian American poetry as a whole. It is interesting to note, too, that most of these poems (if not all) deal with similar themes, which makes their combination in this piece all the more natural.

Since this slideshow is filled with plenty of words for you to absorb, I will keep mine brief. Enjoy the slideshow and Happy (Lunar and Solar) New Year!