What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Two books that I am long overdue to read. Have you ever really loved precisely one book by an author, reading it over and over, loving it, but knowing there is a whole rest of their catalogue out there, and feeling like you don\u2019t actually know what they\u2019re about? Honestly, I do this all the time with bands, too. These two books were worth the wait, and now I love this author even more than I previously did. Two excellent books of poetry, As Long As Trees Last<\/em> and A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure<\/em> by Hoa Nguyen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Long As Trees Last<\/em> by Hoa Nguyen: <\/strong>gotta say, if I was hoping for something relatively similar to Hecate Lochia<\/em>, this was a great next book to read. Published in 2012, this book absolutely rips. The poems are tight, compact, with Hoa\u2019s unique way of playing with language, inserting mythological figures, and casually referencing parenting in all its silliness and grossness. This style of writing is absolutely aspirational to me, I never feel like my shorter stuff is as powerful and surprising as poetry like Hoa\u2019s. At 69 pages with no poem longer than two pages (and some as short as two stanzas), this is close to the Platonic Ideal of a poetry collection for me. Definitely pick this one up, Wave Books did beautiful work with the design, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Thousand Times You Lose Your Treasure<\/em> by Hoa Nguyen: <\/strong>published in 2021, it\u2019s not just the longer length that has me calling this book more ambitious than Hecate Lochia<\/em> or As Long As Trees Last<\/em>. This is a book about generational trauma, about lost homelands, about immigration, about more personal loss, about a lot of things. We have guns pointed at mothers working in the rice paddies, we have sarcastic adulations about the U.S. Air Force, we have sober accountings of various terrible developments from Dow Chemical. There\u2019s more anger in this book than the other two, righteously so. If there\u2019s a syllabus of post-Vietnam War literature, this book should goddamn well be on it, right along with The Gangster We Are Looking For<\/em> and Time Is A Mother<\/em>. Even with the somewhat heavier material, Hoa maintains a totally distinctive lyric voice that I love. The things she does with language are amazing. No matter the material you\u2019re dealing with, you still have to write a poem, and Hoa Nguyen is one of the best poets alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s also super sick stuff in here about Hoa\u2019s mom being part of an all-women stunt motorcycle troupe. There are some truly impressive photos in the back of the book, too. There\u2019s a poem of them wowing some European stunt riders, because women weren\u2019t allowed to do rad shit on bikes in 1950s-60s Europe, I guess. It\u2019s not the only example of the kinds of totally unique humanity that gets lost in the destruction of war, but it’s a salient one. <\/p>\n\n\n\n LINKS!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Something to listen to while you browse? Brendan put me on to EARTHGANG recently. Here’s the unbelievably catchy “Bobby Boucher.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"two](\"https:\/\/www.lazyandentitled.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/IMG_6834-1024x768.jpg\")