asianamlitfans | Jaswinder Bolina's Phantom Camera

Jaswinder Bolina's second book of poems Phantom Camera (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2013) won the Green Rose Prize in 2012, a prize previously won by another poet reviewed on this site, Jon Pineda (for The Translator's Diary).

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I noticed two things about the poems in the first part of this book.... First, that the poems often seemed to be persona poems (written in the voice of someone who is not the poet himself) addressed to a you, often named, in the second person. Second, there are frequent mentions of Chicago as a place, which makes sense knowing that Bolina was born there. A few of his poems are available online in various places, including nearer poems not in Phantom Camera. Here are a few: Aviary; Sunday, Sunday; and Oops Canary.

Bolina's poems might be characterized as experimental; there is a philosophical bent and an interest in places where language makes meaning in weird ways. Thematically, Bolina's poems range from contemplating (romantic) relationships to addressing the geography of America (often the Midwest).

Poking around online, I came across this newer poem by Bolina, "Letter to a Drone Pilot", which is quite a bit more explicitly engaged with political questions than most of the poems in Phantom Camera.

Edited to add: Bolina has this interesting essay on race and writing: "Writing Like a White Guy."