Greenhouses, Lighthouses

Tung-Hui Hu

Weaving between the personal and cosmic “I,” Hu’s lyrics seek the greenhouse—a place of saturation and growth—as a poetic space to cultivate new modes through which our common language can once again illuminate and guide (lighthouse) existence and experience. The collection is full of longing for connection with others and something greater than our referential selves, while refusing to name or define what exactly is sought or how to reach it.

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ISBN: 9781556594069

Format: Paperback

Years Varied as a Bloom of Flowers

 

CHORUS: When your new wife whispers

secrets to a tree, which tree does she hollow?

How does she shape a listening duct

 

like the mushroom called wood ear,

a flared mouthpiece for her lips to fill?

 

What was so terrible that she sealed mud

into the hole?

 

HE: Why is it that sometimes, listening

to you, I can hear the sound of a radiator

 

breathing steam in a cold room?

About the Author

Tung-Hui Hu is the author of three books of poetry, The Book of Motion (2003), Mine (2007), and Greenhouses, Lighthouses (Copper Canyon Press, 2013), as well as a study of digital culture, A Prehistory of the Cloud (2015), which was described by The New Yorker as “mesmerizing… absorbing [in] its playful speculations.” Hu has received awards from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the American Academy in Berlin, and his poems have appeared in places …

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Reviews

“Greenhouses, Lighthouses is a provocative gesture toward cinematography… A radiant offering for our times.” —Judges’ citation, James D. Phelan Literary Award, 2007

“Tung-Hui Hu makes magic of anything he takes in hand, whether it’s architectural theory or cyberspace or poetry.” —Linda Gregerson

“This fresh and unexpected poet extends the lyric into the social space without losing any of song’s intensity or mystery, so that these casually elegant, affecting poems feel as interior as they are worldly.” —Mark Doty

“Greenhouses, Lighthouses is rich with double meanings and intellectual speculation. Highly recommended, especially for connoisseurs of inventive and introspective poetry.” —Midwest Book Review