Reader’s Corner
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Kimiko Hahn's Toxic Flora
A brand new book this spring that also meshes science and poetry is Kimiko Hahn’s book Toxic Flora (W.W. Norton), inspired by articles from the weekly “Science Times” section of the New York Times. Hahn’s poems are more straightforward than Linda Gregerson’s in their presentation of science, but Hahn makes deft and surprising leaps to link natural history to personal history and human experience. After considering the wiles of the green-winged orchid, she asks,
What to make of highly evolved Beauty
bent on deception as survival—
liposuction, rejuvenated clitoris,
plumped lips?
Publisher’s Weekly gave this book a Starred Review, saying in part: “These sharp, gut-punching lyrics quote from and/or borrow the diction of science writing in order to investigate more personal issues, including the traumas of girlhood, adolescence, and family in general, as well as the intricacies of love…. In what may be Hahn’s best book to date.”
Toxic Flora
By Kimiko Hahn
W.W. Norton, 2010
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