Quintessential Earthly Activities

Apr. 13, 2027

"I revel in Chen’s capaciousness, his lightning-fast modulations between silly and sober, his capacity to make poetry that is no less serious for being fun."—Craig Morgan Teicher, NPR 

Ecstatic, elegiac, and erotic, the poems in Quintessential Earthly Activities form a constellation of mortal loves and contradictions. In ancient philosophy and medieval alchemy, quintessence referred to the fifth and highest element, thought to imbue all of nature and to constitute the heavenly bodies. Chen Chen’s third collection of poetry considers the quintessences—the core elements—of contemporary life, not as fixed characteristics, but as ever-evolving aspects of a soul, albeit an insistently queer and creaturely one that doubts the existence of souls.

Here, the celestial as well as the sacred are found in putting on a stunning jean jacket; speaking out against racism and homophobia; making a cup of tea, then promptly forgetting it; reconnecting with immigrant family; writing a letter by hand despite terrible handwriting; and asking a friend, “Have you eaten yet?"