Night Sessions, by David Cho

This wonderful book of poems (CavanKerry Press, 2011) evoked tears, laughter, admiration and wonder. Cho captures with stunning delicacy a son’s love and longing for his father, the everyday, seemingly mundane yet forceful travails of being Korean American, and the complex relationships to a separate country of origin, while also expressing through this collection a coming-of-age story within a Korean American family that has experienced hardship and grief, all with exquisite language and sensitivity. I read most of these out loud, and their form only lends to their mellifluousness. As with the work of Monica Youn, whose creative word wizardy is often felt here, many of these poems left me breathless.