Feng Sun Chen

                Feng Sun Chen recently appeared on the infinitely excellent “NewWaveVomit: for everything you need to let out”. Her poems had hart. I hadn’t heard of her before. No real reason why, I try to find out about all kinds of unusual literature. On NewWaveVomit, Feng focused on soup and mothers. To me, both of those things are life-changing. Mothers literally give life and sustain it through soup. Perhaps people eat food other than soup but I doubt it. Right now that’s all I can afford so the poems helped me feel better about my wrenching poverty. 

                Curious I decided to check out Feng’s wordpress which you can find right here. I felt anxious doing this as wordpress remains one of the few blogging sites where I never have had a presence. Mostly my avoidance of wordpress stemmed from a belief that everything on there was whiny political screeds I’d probably strongly agree or disagree with as I’m extremely passionate about politics. Good thing she also has a Tumblr or I’d be a bit scared.

                The blog is a mix between being poetry and a journal. Anxiety runs strong as Feng discusses the importance of discipline in an MFA program in her “Air, Water, Earth” post, a nod to the children’s cartoon “Captain Planet” where a bunch of kids combine powers to create a half-naked buff blue guy. She talks about how difficult it is to be so focused. I feel the same way regarding school. Often there are so many choices and I always feel like I’m missing out, like I’m learning about the top of the iceberg when it is the bottom part that’s really going to blow my mind (metaphorically speaking). Feng has traveled more than me and remains considerably younger than myself. Plus she writes some fairly excellent poetry. 

                I liked the poem “All the Powerless People” because it made me feel innocent and pure like a baby or ‘babees’ as Feng calls them. Deliberate misspellings appear in her work on a fairly regular basis. From what I see they are used as a way of showing affection towards a particular object or individual. Misspellings in general can be used as a way of showing off one’s individuality, hence why many poets use them on a fairly regular basis. 

                What impressed me most about Feng’s talent is not her ability to follow David Lynch on Twitter but her ability to review her own book on Pangur Ban Party entitled “Arcane Carnal Knowledge”. Feng did a great job exploring the themes in her own book. The book is available free of charge on the infinitely excellent Pangur Ban Party website. In the book you learn about the mystery of Christ’s lady bits. Some other stuff happens too.

                Feng Chen is a shadowy figure, as shown in this picture depicting her as a literal shadowy figure. I’m glad she’s so prolific and so odd. Life seems better that way.