Sông I Sing: Poems

Author: Bao Phi

Publisher: Coffee House Press (2011)

Dynamic and eye-opening, this debut by a National Poetry Slam finalist critiques an America sleepwalking through its days and explores the contradictions of race and class in America.

"Phi knows tenderness. Isn't bruised flesh tender? He knows love, too—it is 'like a brick through glass: / first a riot / then fire / then nothing.' This explosive collection mourns their proximity to hate and insists we all do better, including Phi, himself. That's the jagged song he sings til his throat goes raw."

–Douglas Kearney

“Sông I Sing will cleanse and free your mind; it is an American original. Phi’s voice is singularly strong, rhythmic and rooted in the particularities of the Vietnamese American experience, in the urgencies of hip-hop and the cold raw edge of the poet’s urban Midwestern roots, where being a ‘colored boy’ makes finding the rainbow almost impossible.”

–David Mura