From "Aubade"

From the last stars to sunrise the world is dark and enduring and emptiness has its place Then, to wake each day to the world's unwaverin limits, you have to think about passion differently, again

Truthful, sensuous and intellectually relentless, the poems in The Curious Thing are compelling meditations on love, art making, solitude, female fate and both the mundane and serious principles of life. Sandra Lim’s poetry displays stinging wit and a tough-minded approach to her own experiences: She speaks with Jean Rhys about beauty, encounters the dark loneliness that can exist inside a relationship, and discovers a coiled anger on a hot summer day. An extended poem sequence slyly revolves the meanings of finding oneself astray in midlife. A steely strength courses through the volume’s...