Fuchsia in Cambodia

Suffused with tenderness and humor, the poems in this new collection take readers on a journey through emotions, across national boundaries, and even along the geographic timeline. The quick mind of author Jacobstein creates fluid verse that can take on the singular geography of his native Michigan or the story of an immigrant cab driver with ease. His elegant rhyme and clever rhythm are suited equally to an ode to the stegosaurus and to his many poems for his adopted daughter. He moves readers from Washington, D.C., to Delhi, from adolescence to fatherhood, and between heaven and earth. With its immersive voice and sensitive examinations, this set of verses retains its sense of wonder at all the beautiful hellos and good-byes that humans come to know well in their too-short lifetimes.

 

from “Nick of Time”

& if I keep at it forty-three more years

can I make a work of art, even beauty, from this jumble

 

we call the world—yellow balls & summer lawns, temples

& tourists, exiles, IV poles, crocodiles––& may it stay

the confusion & the madness, Lord, if not the clock.