Small Hours

Yu Yan Chen's debut collection takes us on a wandering across continents. Whether it is a courtyard in rural China, a ferry in Istanbul, or Times Square in New York, each poem is an unbeaten track imbued with poet's at once intense but refreshing insights about family, home, identity and the quest for inner strength. The opening verse asks the readers to imagine guitar legend Djongo Reinhardt's fingers grinding the strings after two of them were badly burned in a fire, and "every nerve aflame" is the prelude to poems that transcend memories and losses into melodies of hope and light. These distilled joys and fears, set against the backdrops of Yu Yan Chen's creative use of language and her cinematic visions, will transport the readers to a passionate conversation about the essence of being alive. SMALL HOURS lights up your sky and brings flowers to your table.