Ocean of Clouds: Poems

In his fourth book of poems, award-winning poet Garrett Hongo sees coastlines and waters, skylines and ancestral lines for what they inspire and teach. NAMED AN ESSENTIAL READ OF THE YEAR BY THE New Yorker . In his fourth book of poems, award-winning poet Garrett Hongo sees coastlines and waters, skylines and ancestral lines for what they inspire and teach. In a surpassingly beautiful collection of poems, with his characteristic long-lined, rolling music, Hongo is alert to the possibilities of individual moments of perception and grace in the landscapes of his life, whether waiting for a ferry in Balboa after a writing workshop ("An oil slick from a yacht . . . / Spread rainbows on the water, an aleph / curving toward us") or hanging out and playing LPs with the late, great poet Michael Harper, or watching his daughter in the sun with a halo of messy twelve-year-old's hair, or listening to the sea, which speaks to him in so many places- at the Wai'opae Tidepools, at Cassis, at Divi Bay in Saint Martin, where, he tells us, "I thought of writing to the soul of N zim Hikmet, / saying loving a woman was like writing a book- / . . . it is love's body on which you write a page of kisses . . ." These poems of cloudy moons and sandstone cliffsides, the black glass of lava shattered into sands, waves surging, and stories of a poet's gratitude for the journey he has made, come together to make a paean against forgetting.

About the Author :
GARRETT HONGO was born in Volcano, Hawaiʻi, and grew up on the North Shore of Oʻahu and in Los Angeles. His most recent books are The Perfect Sound- A Memoir in Stereo, The Mirror Diary- Selected Essays, and Coral Road- Poems. He has been the recipient of several awards, including fellowships from the NEA and the Guggenheim Foundation. Hongo lives in Eugene, Oregon, and teaches at the University of Oregon, where he is Distinguished Professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Review :
One of Library Journal’s Titles to Watch

“Philosophical reflections on childhood, landscape, music, and literature unfurl throughout this expansive, erudite collection, which journeys from Hawai’i to Los Angeles to the coast of France and beyond, bearing witness to what of life is ephemeral and alike to what endures.” —The New Yorker

“Hongo writes rolling, surging poems that shade into the musical, and his latest collection is no exception. . . . From Hawaii to France to the Caribbean, he mimics the rhythms of peaceful and rugged coastlines shaped by the seas. But he also finds inspiration in his commute, his record player, and his daughter’s hair, committing each to paper and to memory. He is a master of pulling from the ordinary unexpected, specific imagery.” —Alta

“Remarkable. . . . It’s evident that Hongo is one of those poets who can engage all our senses with just a few lines. He conjures sublime collisions of sound, texture, movement and emotion, limning multifaceted forms of beauty like the motion of a hand writing kanji, the ‘prehensile’ quality of a Michael Jackson song or the wonder of a longstanding artistic friendship. . . . Ocean of Clouds is a book as supernal and reflective as its title suggests.” —BookPage

“Hongo knows himself well: where he’s been and what he finds joyful. He dives deep . . . [and] achieves 'a real thing' for the reader. It’s this sense of generosity, confidence, and imagery that makes each poem sing.” —International Examiner

“Poet, memoirist, and audiophile at-large Hongo extracts glossy memories from the sands of time in this collection of ruminative verse. The slow pace of Hongo's elongated lyrics luxuriates in fine details of interior domesticity. . . . Equal parts clear-eyed retrospective and passionate narration, Hongo's latest provides notation on a storied and euphonious career.” —Booklist

“Hongo’s poetry embodies the country’s impurity, its multiplicity of tongues and peoples—this is what makes him a guiding spirit to the America we have always been and just as importantly, the America that is surely coming.” —JStOR Daily