“A Reading by Sandra Lim”

A Reading by Sandra Lim

Sandra Lim: Thank you so much. Thank you, David, for that wonderful introduction. I kind of don’t even want to read. Let’s just leave it at that. Thank you so much, VCU, for having me. I’m thrilled to be here and very, very honored to be part of this prize. When I first heard about it and realized how long-standing it was—this is just my personality—I was like, “I’m going to break the prize. I don’t want to ruin the prize.” So I made it here tonight. I am going to read exclusively from The Wilderness . And I thought I would start with a poem that I think encompasses some of the major questions or concerns I had in starting to write this book, or the poems in this collection. Can everyone hear me? This poem is called “Amor Fati.”

[“Amor Fati,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

I thought I would read some poems that. . . . Earlier today in the Q&A, I was asked sort of about this very prose-like line, and it was an interesting question, that it came up at all, because as I was writing the poems for this collection, I was having a very difficult time with finding the right form for certain poems. So the next few poems, the sort of world poems that I’m going to read, kind of helped me into the kind of, I think, poetic or lyric thinking that happens in the rest of the book. This poem is called “The Vanishing World.”

[“The Vanishing World,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

[“The New World,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

[“The Dark World,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

I’ll read some short, short lyrics. The next few poems that I wanted to read, they’re from a longer poem in the book, “Homage to Mistress Bradstreet,” written in sections, but as much as I wanted them to be able to be read and understood as a sequence, I hoped that the individual poems could stand on their own. This is a teeny one, and I stole the title from Anne Bradstreet, “Poetry (The Author to Her Book).”

[“7. Poetry (The Author to Her Book),” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

[“5. Conversion Narrative,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

. . . and then the last one from this sequence is called “Black Painting.”

[“9. Black Painting,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

I’m going to read two poems with the same title. It’s called “Certainty,” they’re called “Certainty.” This is one of the first poems that I wrote. Actually, not while in New England, it was in California that I started this poem, and this is where I believe in the enchantment or the magic of just being led by what you’re obsessed by or fascinated by. I didn’t realize that I was so interested in Puritans. I wasn’t cuddling up with Wigglesworth that night reading in California, but there it began. This poem is called “Certainty.” [“Certainty [Edward Taylor . . . ],” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

[“Certainty [Perhaps you can . . . ],” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

These are kind of downers, so I’m going to switch over. I had the great pleasure of meeting my friend’s daughter for the first time recently, she’s only four-years old, and her mother said, “Meet Sandra, she’s a poet.” The four-year-old, or maybe she’s four-and-a-half, said, “Oh, you’re a poet. So you write love poems.” She was so certain about that and I just love that that was her idea what a poet was. In Sophia’s honor, I’m going to read some love poems. This is called “Fall.”

[“Fall,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

[“Cheval Sombre,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

These aren’t necessarily that much happier either, but it’s okay.

[“Envoi: Orpheus,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.] I’d like to say that you can read that one to anyone who’s broken up with you. This is called “Vous Et Nul Autre.” I guess I’m thinking I like French for love poems.

[“Vous Et Nul Autre,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

So, I’ll just read three more. This is called “Aubade.”

[“Aubade,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

I will close with the opening and closing poems of the book, just two short lyrics. This first one is called “Small Container, Fury.”

[“Small Container, Fury,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

. . . and finally, “Cliffs.”

[“Cliffs,” Sandra Lim, The Wilderness , W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.]

Thank you so much.