Weekly Poem: 'Never Seen'

Hoa Nguyen studied poetics at New College of California in San Francisco. The author of eight books and chapbooks, she teaches poetics in a private workshop and at Ryerson University. Wave Books published her third full-length collection of poems, "As Long As Trees Last," in September 2012.

By Hoa Nguyen

Never seen a corncrakean ochre cry to screenmakes the evening chill a chordto sandhill      string and feelwind of wing beatsin your faceFace the never-stumble   for throwing yourself sosprightly     What can't staylate in the month:dolphin fetuses       not birdswashing up in numbersPic_1_homepage_square_thumbnail.jpg

Born in the Mekong Delta and raised in the Washington, D.C., area, Hoa Nguyen studied poetics at New College of California in San Francisco. With the poet Dale Smith, Nguyen founded Skanky Possum, a poetry journal and book imprint in Austin, Texas, where they lived for 14 years. The author of eight books and chapbooks, she currently lives in Toronto, where she teaches poetics in a private workshop and at Ryerson University. Wave Books published her third full-length collection of poems, "As Long As Trees Last," in September 2012.