Diary of Small Discontents

"Across the amazing & ever-changing arc of Yau’s poetry, the range of possibility, steeped in sound, image, story’s insistent edges, every formal variation available, and something like total word love, is vast and exact. . . . In Yau’s poems the sense—my sense—of presence is always multiple, amused amidst difficult questions, and unremitting. Consciousness comes forward to recede and reform again, changed by experience and attraction. Emotive tones may be inseparable from personae: voices in their various costumes listened to in chaotic order to try on, channeled from an endless stream of vessels, i.e. the mournful necessities of respect and need, rich with humor so as to continue. Diary of Small Discontents, a half century-long picture-wild adventure, is a major gift to anyone capable of loving poetry." -- Anselm Berrigan, author of "Pregrets"
"Acclaimed poet, artist and art critic Yau dazzles us with his Diary of Small Discontents. Whether it’s the early poem with a child playing on the stoop in 'After Moving,' or the late pantoum/elegy 'For Brice Marden (1938 – 2023) via Han Shan,' Yau’s range of expressive moods and moves is extraordinary. . . . Conversations with painters themselves give rise to the balanced beauty of 'Ventriloquist for Jasper Johns' or the finely wrought series, 'A Painter’s Thoughts.' Yau’s acute, incisive wit is unflinching. Behind the wit is a gravity, a kind of radiant compassion with a flinty blade, as in 'On Being Told That I Don’t Look and Act Chinese.' The wry, contradictory mix of issues like race, class, 'the headman . . . the deadman,' is compelling. Yau’s speculative koans operate to puzzle conceptual thought. His irresistible Diary of Small Discontents is the enduring conversation that we seek." -- Norma Cole, author of "Alibi Lullaby"
"Taking seriously the concept that 'content is merely the extension of form,' Yau is a supreme formalist. He creates an integrity of structure that allows him to go anywhere in his poetry, and he does in the most surprising and original ways. The work never ceases to surprise. His poetry is at once buoyant and piercing, funny and dark. Very dark. Very funny. Yau is also an important and extraordinary precursor to contemporary Asian American poetry. His long-standing career and voluminous adventurous writing attests to his masterful achievement. Diary of Small Discontents is essential reading for essential poets." -- Peter Gizzi, author of "Fierce Elegy"