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All the Flowers Kneeling
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Poetry (2022)
A profound meditation on physical, emotional, and psychological transformation in the aftermath of imperial violence and interpersonal abuse, from a poet both "tender and unflinching" (Khadijah Queen)
Visceral and astonishing, Paul Tran's debut poetry collection All the Flowers Kneeling investigates intergenerational trauma, sexual violence, and U.S. imperialism in order to radically alter our understanding of freedom, power, and control. In poems of desire, gender, bodies, legacies, and imagined futures, Tran's poems elucidate the complex and harrowing processes of reckoning and recovery, enhanced by innovative poetic forms that mirror the nonlinear emotional and psychological experiences of trauma survivors. At once grand and intimate, commanding and deeply vulnerable, All the Flowers Kneeling revels in rediscovering and reconfiguring the self, and ultimately becomes an essential testament to the human capacity for resilience, endurance, and love.
Visceral and astonishing, Paul Tran's debut poetry collection All the Flowers Kneeling investigates intergenerational trauma, sexual violence, and U.S. imperialism in order to radically alter our understanding of freedom, power, and control. In poems of desire, gender, bodies, legacies, and imagined futures, Tran's poems elucidate the complex and harrowing processes of reckoning and recovery, enhanced by innovative poetic forms that mirror the nonlinear emotional and psychological experiences of trauma survivors. At once grand and intimate, commanding and deeply vulnerable, All the Flowers Kneeling revels in rediscovering and reconfiguring the self, and ultimately becomes an essential testament to the human capacity for resilience, endurance, and love.
112 pages, Paperback
First published February 15, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 221 reviews
February 10, 2023
Well, I kind of figure that modern poetry is not my niche, and most times, I don't wanna read them just so my disfavor towards it wouldn't cloud my judgment. When you already have certain poetic forms that you abhor, it can be difficult to be objective. However, there are times when I do want this genre to grow on me, so I'm opening up to chances that I will find one that I will eventually love.
Apart from the obvious, I do like poetry — but only when they are classics or sonnets. And so this book puts me in a very difficult position because the themes it centered to are so vital and personal and expressing that, AGAIN, I didn't like it feels so inconsiderate and wrong. Tran carefully considers every part of how their pain and their mother's trauma are expressed in poetry, including diction, sound, and structure. So who am I to criticize someone's form of expression as bad?
Even so, I am still a reader (with no expertise mind you) and it's not all the time one's works will resonate with me (which is also not fair because you don't always have to feel the same importance as others for you to enjoy it). In the case of Tran, their way of writing just happened to bug me a lot. Some poets have their preferences for particular structures, and others prefer to write with a lack of structure, but I have an aversion to all the mixed and disorderly forms of the poems.
It makes me so hard to read and retain my attention (my mild ADHD is not giving me or this book justice). Therefore, this particular part frustrated me a lot because I wanted to make it to the end. Although the poetry in these works is colorful, the artistry is as subtle as invisible mending; you won't notice the threads unless you look for them and it is almost impossible to do so when you find yourself closing the book more than you should. Not to mention, how I cowered at some of the references in their writing.
On a side note, I do appreciate Tran's voice in sharing their experience, contextualizing the United States’ brutal intervention in Vietnam’s civil war. I believe that Tran's poetry offers an alternative to a culture that encourages us to value achievement over introspection and certainty over uncertainty. Their collection serves as a crucial reminder that periods of ignorance can also be constructive.
I have confidence that the right person will find this brilliant and daring. I was hoping it would be the matter for me on Tran's upcoming pieces.
Apart from the obvious, I do like poetry — but only when they are classics or sonnets. And so this book puts me in a very difficult position because the themes it centered to are so vital and personal and expressing that, AGAIN, I didn't like it feels so inconsiderate and wrong. Tran carefully considers every part of how their pain and their mother's trauma are expressed in poetry, including diction, sound, and structure. So who am I to criticize someone's form of expression as bad?
Even so, I am still a reader (with no expertise mind you) and it's not all the time one's works will resonate with me (which is also not fair because you don't always have to feel the same importance as others for you to enjoy it). In the case of Tran, their way of writing just happened to bug me a lot. Some poets have their preferences for particular structures, and others prefer to write with a lack of structure, but I have an aversion to all the mixed and disorderly forms of the poems.
It makes me so hard to read and retain my attention (my mild ADHD is not giving me or this book justice). Therefore, this particular part frustrated me a lot because I wanted to make it to the end. Although the poetry in these works is colorful, the artistry is as subtle as invisible mending; you won't notice the threads unless you look for them and it is almost impossible to do so when you find yourself closing the book more than you should. Not to mention, how I cowered at some of the references in their writing.
On a side note, I do appreciate Tran's voice in sharing their experience, contextualizing the United States’ brutal intervention in Vietnam’s civil war. I believe that Tran's poetry offers an alternative to a culture that encourages us to value achievement over introspection and certainty over uncertainty. Their collection serves as a crucial reminder that periods of ignorance can also be constructive.
I have confidence that the right person will find this brilliant and daring. I was hoping it would be the matter for me on Tran's upcoming pieces.
February 25, 2022
Speechless. A difficult but necessary—and game-changing—read.
July 14, 2022
“No child in our family stays a child their mother can love.”
I was sent this collection of poetry as an ARC, and while I’m no expert on poetry, I found Tran to be a talented poet. Many poems were powerful yet dark. There were a few I didn’t like; pop culture references & imagery I just wasn’t a fan of. But I’m always hesitant to criticize poetry (unless it’s blatantly bad.) With poetry this intimate, it's hard for me to accurately judge a thing. Am I just uncomfortable with the level of vulnerability that they're displaying? There was a lot of intentional repetition and word play that I found unique and interesting, and only slightly tedious at times. It’s described as “At once grand and intimate, commanding and deeply vulnerable”, which sums it up incredibly well.
I was sent this collection of poetry as an ARC, and while I’m no expert on poetry, I found Tran to be a talented poet. Many poems were powerful yet dark. There were a few I didn’t like; pop culture references & imagery I just wasn’t a fan of. But I’m always hesitant to criticize poetry (unless it’s blatantly bad.) With poetry this intimate, it's hard for me to accurately judge a thing. Am I just uncomfortable with the level of vulnerability that they're displaying? There was a lot of intentional repetition and word play that I found unique and interesting, and only slightly tedious at times. It’s described as “At once grand and intimate, commanding and deeply vulnerable”, which sums it up incredibly well.
April 18, 2022
Poetry is a genre where I think the content is often intensely personal for the author, where inspiration and content is often taken from within and from their own experiences. I am also someone who struggles to connect / feels like they don't 'get' a lot of poetry. For these two reasons I don't feel placed to say too much about this debut collection beyond that I struggled to connect with it beyond a handful of poems which had some excellent lines in them (Year of the Monkey was a standout).
Thank you Netgalley and Penguin for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you Netgalley and Penguin for the advance copy, which was provided in exchange for an honest review.
April 23, 2022
Paul Tran's book is brilliant in places, and there's a lot going on here in the book as a book, not just a collection of poems, but some poems begun in the first part continue on in the last part - there are repeated themes and titles, with subtle changes in style.
Throughout is an overarching sensitivity to trauma, grief and family.
Great poems: The three poems called "Scientific Method", "Bioluminscence," the poems about his father (less so the ones about his mother), when Tran reaches to sensitive and vulnerable places his poetry improves dramatically and becomes deeply moving.
The only complaint is what I call "form-confusion" where he goes off on tangents like part 13 of the Scherazade poem which undermine its effectiveness. Also some of the poems are very weak, the first two poems in the collection were not the best way to start. The "Report" poems unclear why they are included. He might be more creative with word choice in places like the "Judith" poem which seemed a bit crude for no particular reason.
I sense Paul Tran's next book will be more artistic - he's a bit obsessed with form, and the end notes are overly long and make me feel like he's trying too much, and distancing himself. There's a great artist in him waiting just be unleashed. We will see. I want his next book just to be about him, and his life, not the lives of scientists and paintings by other artists.
February 21, 2022
Many of these poems felt plucked from an impressive bouquet of numerous poetic forms, including the hydra, Paul Tran's revision of the sonnet crown. In poems that mirror, circle back to, and fold in on themselves, in poems loaded with wordplay (some instances stronger than others), this collection is concerned with the many faces of disempowerment, like sexual assault and American imperialism, but never resigns to powerlessness, possessing a blistering self-awareness instead: "My purpose is precision. // Even when I'm unclear I'm deliberate. // When I'm deliberate I'm liberated."
November 8, 2022
I listened to the audiobook version of this book and I was totally enraptured by Tran’s reading of their work. They are an incredibly dynamic reader and hearing these poems read aloud gave me a greater appreciation for the way the poet plays with sound/rhyme/repetition/musicality.
February 14, 2023
3.5/5 stars!
this was undoubtedly well written and i can totally see how it was nominated for a goodreads choice award last year. i expected it to hit me a little harder because of the topic, but the vagueness left room for my mind to wander a lot. i only ended up highlighting 3 passages and then 'the santa ana' entirely (prob my fav poem in the collection) but was kind of hoping for me.
this was undoubtedly well written and i can totally see how it was nominated for a goodreads choice award last year. i expected it to hit me a little harder because of the topic, but the vagueness left room for my mind to wander a lot. i only ended up highlighting 3 passages and then 'the santa ana' entirely (prob my fav poem in the collection) but was kind of hoping for me.
February 27, 2022
4/5
"I, after so much isolation, so much indifference, kept going even if going to mean only waiting, hovering in place. So far below, so far
away from the rest of life...."
"All the flowers kneeling" by Paul Tran is a delight of words written about rediscovering and reconfiguring oneself, and this collection becomes an essential attestation to the human ability of resilience, fortitude and love.
Considering it's a debut collection - I'm dumbfounded. The collection is immaculate, and every word was dripping with emotions. At times, I had to stop and absorb what I was actually feeling.
A definite recommendation.
"I, after so much isolation, so much indifference, kept going even if going to mean only waiting, hovering in place. So far below, so far
away from the rest of life...."
"All the flowers kneeling" by Paul Tran is a delight of words written about rediscovering and reconfiguring oneself, and this collection becomes an essential attestation to the human ability of resilience, fortitude and love.
Considering it's a debut collection - I'm dumbfounded. The collection is immaculate, and every word was dripping with emotions. At times, I had to stop and absorb what I was actually feeling.
A definite recommendation.
December 22, 2021
This is an incredible collection of poetry. It focuses heavily on trauma and healing. Most distinctively, these poems have a strong and unique progression. They spiral and curve and sharpen at just the right moments to wrap the reader in. The train-of-consciousness effect utilized in these poems lends some really interesting sonic echos! A must-read.
March 5, 2022
It seems unfair to just mark this as the poetry of trauma, but the trauma is here. Name it is as you wish - pear or what not. I think Tran knows we’re smart enough to process and protect. We’ve all been healing in one manner or another. These poems pull the flowers from the root. The garden has been undone.
October 26, 2022
Brilliant, beautiful, and harrowing. Watch his video "How Poetry Works" to get a taste of Tran making the personal political.
Read
October 23, 2022i think poetry is one of the most intimate types of art and in this particular case no one except for the author can truly understand it (of course, every reader gives it their own meaning and that's what makes poetry, and art in general, so special) so i feel like rating this book wouldn't make any sense, at least to me, since it talks in a very personal way about tran's trauma and experience.
i, however, found myself struggling with the way some poems were written and i can't really say i enjoyed the book in its entirety, except for "Bioluminescence" , which i found brilliant, "Year of the Monkey" , and these particular verses from “I See Not Stars but Their Light Reaching Across the Distance Between Us” :
"Something
Not usually visible, like my desire now for the life
Stars have. To be fixed. To be luminous. I knew what I wanted
But I didn’t know how I’d achieve it.”
//
"Way in the distance, the stars appeared. Still fixed. Still luminous.
I’m going to be far from my pain one day. I’m going to
No longer feel that pain but something new and just as merciless.”
i, however, found myself struggling with the way some poems were written and i can't really say i enjoyed the book in its entirety, except for "Bioluminescence" , which i found brilliant, "Year of the Monkey" , and these particular verses from “I See Not Stars but Their Light Reaching Across the Distance Between Us” :
"Something
Not usually visible, like my desire now for the life
Stars have. To be fixed. To be luminous. I knew what I wanted
But I didn’t know how I’d achieve it.”
//
"Way in the distance, the stars appeared. Still fixed. Still luminous.
I’m going to be far from my pain one day. I’m going to
No longer feel that pain but something new and just as merciless.”
March 4, 2024
dark yet powerful — this was a difficult but important read
April 13, 2022
Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review All the Flowers Kneeling.
This book is definitely not a quick read but it is worth the effort that you need to put in. Bioluminescence, year of the money, first law of motion are all really fantastic poems, and I want my own copy of this book to re-read them!
This book is definitely not a quick read but it is worth the effort that you need to put in. Bioluminescence, year of the money, first law of motion are all really fantastic poems, and I want my own copy of this book to re-read them!
January 3, 2023
Phenomenal writing that moved me to reach for my own pen. The pieces weren't only beautifully done but also emoted so many spectrums of emotion. Very well done.
January 9, 2023
Nothing I can say about this that could possibly do it justice, so just read it.
April 11, 2022
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a free copy of this book!
This is a very evocative poetry collection, very powerful and timely too.
I was touched by the agile word play and the rythm of many of the poems, as much as by their themes: institutional violence against immigrants, and rape but also of hope and precious a heritage of stories and love.
I will very much be looking forward to reading more poetry by this author as he is evidently very cultured and talented.
This is a very evocative poetry collection, very powerful and timely too.
I was touched by the agile word play and the rythm of many of the poems, as much as by their themes: institutional violence against immigrants, and rape but also of hope and precious a heritage of stories and love.
I will very much be looking forward to reading more poetry by this author as he is evidently very cultured and talented.
June 30, 2023
I'm just not a poetry bitch I'm sorry I'm trying
January 28, 2023
Mesmerizing. Raw. Meditative. Not sure if any other collection this year could outshine this gathering of flowers.
May 5, 2022
I had to read these poems curled up in the safety of my bed under my comfiest blankets, that was how much these poems broke me open. Paul Tran has a true gift for alchemizing experiences of surviving the unthinkable into gold, sometimes stained and sometimes shining.
October 20, 2022
“I’m miraculous.
Chickenshit.
Cashing my checks.“
Chickenshit.
Cashing my checks.“
November 28, 2022
I guess modern poetry isn’t for me.
February 28, 2022
[Copy gifted by the publisher]
READ IF YOU LIKE...
• Varied and purposeful poetic forms
• Honest and raw explorations of trauma
• Vietnamese history
I THOUGHT IT WAS...
A captivating collection of poetry that presents new perspectives on fine art, scientific history, and religion in service to the devastating process of recounting and processing trauma.
What I loved most about Tran's debut is how purposeful it is. Through recurring imagery and forms, they connect everything together in a way almost similar to the spiral depicted on the cover. At its heart is a 13-section poem in an invented form, taking the conventional and comfortable sonnet and tilting it off balance. Tran shares in their notes that this "Hydra" form is meant to convey how things don't flow and resolve neatly in trauma. Indeed, that is the central theme of the collection, but one that ends with a feeling of fortitude.
READ IF YOU LIKE...
• Varied and purposeful poetic forms
• Honest and raw explorations of trauma
• Vietnamese history
I THOUGHT IT WAS...
A captivating collection of poetry that presents new perspectives on fine art, scientific history, and religion in service to the devastating process of recounting and processing trauma.
What I loved most about Tran's debut is how purposeful it is. Through recurring imagery and forms, they connect everything together in a way almost similar to the spiral depicted on the cover. At its heart is a 13-section poem in an invented form, taking the conventional and comfortable sonnet and tilting it off balance. Tran shares in their notes that this "Hydra" form is meant to convey how things don't flow and resolve neatly in trauma. Indeed, that is the central theme of the collection, but one that ends with a feeling of fortitude.
February 16, 2022
“They followed the idea so far inside that outside became another idea.”
This was a beautiful, albeit dark, collection of poetry that I devoured in one sitting. Some of the poems really resonated with me, as a survivor. Some of them I didn’t resonate with but still empathized. Some of them were too dark for me to read, yet, until I can heal myself.
I loved the way everything came full circle, I love the artwork on the cover and inside the pages, I enjoyed the format. I didn’t love the deckled edges, but that’s just a personal preference. Overall a great poetry collection. I’d recommend to everyone, with a small warning to check triggers before reading!
This was a beautiful, albeit dark, collection of poetry that I devoured in one sitting. Some of the poems really resonated with me, as a survivor. Some of them I didn’t resonate with but still empathized. Some of them were too dark for me to read, yet, until I can heal myself.
I loved the way everything came full circle, I love the artwork on the cover and inside the pages, I enjoyed the format. I didn’t love the deckled edges, but that’s just a personal preference. Overall a great poetry collection. I’d recommend to everyone, with a small warning to check triggers before reading!
December 31, 2023
I read All the Flowers Kneeling for a poetry class this semester and had the opportunity to hear Paul Tran speak at University of Michigan. A beautiful debut collection from an incredible poet who manages to be haunting, inspiring, and devastating all at once. Metaphors draw on famous paintings, scientific concepts, and historic events. Tran’s cultural heritage, traumatic experiences, and unique brand of wisdom all play out. There are impressive poetic exercises like the invented for of the “hydra” poem that had me flipping back and forth the appreciate how every line connects. My personal favorites were “Bioluminescence” and “Hupothesis” 🐠🌼🕯️
March 4, 2024
this is an incredible debut collection and tran definitely flexese their knowledge of and ability to experiment with poetic form. this lends to a strong sense of entanglement between the poems, with only a few awkward outliers, creating a cohesive collection centering on themes of survival and trauma.
the mythological, religious, and historical allusions are really well incorporated (and anybody hating on the detail tran puts into the end notes can suck it).
the tone and format of some poems can veer into an overly clinical and detached voice. while this feels like an intentional choice to represent certain trauma responses, it also occasionally stales the emotional thread between author and reader and clouds tran's presence in the poems.
overall a brilliant collection and well worth your time.
the mythological, religious, and historical allusions are really well incorporated (and anybody hating on the detail tran puts into the end notes can suck it).
the tone and format of some poems can veer into an overly clinical and detached voice. while this feels like an intentional choice to represent certain trauma responses, it also occasionally stales the emotional thread between author and reader and clouds tran's presence in the poems.
overall a brilliant collection and well worth your time.
July 11, 2022
"In a version of the story
there’s no ship. No going forward. No getting back. No inner compass or
magnetic field
or spinning needle or stars to tell my mother where she is. In a version of
the story
there’s no story. No sleepless dawn. No twilight. Nothing happened. My
mother disappears
whatever blights her the way she now makes her living: altering and
tailoring the story
as though the truth were trousers to be hemmed. She changes and is
changed by how
she tells her story. There is no truth. Only a version. Aversion. A verge. A
vengeance."
there’s no ship. No going forward. No getting back. No inner compass or
magnetic field
or spinning needle or stars to tell my mother where she is. In a version of
the story
there’s no story. No sleepless dawn. No twilight. Nothing happened. My
mother disappears
whatever blights her the way she now makes her living: altering and
tailoring the story
as though the truth were trousers to be hemmed. She changes and is
changed by how
she tells her story. There is no truth. Only a version. Aversion. A verge. A
vengeance."
July 21, 2022
My notes for this poetry collection: Scientific analysis dissection, research, discovery, reclamation, liberation, reckoning, but poetry and art all at once.
Or, as Paul Tran wrote in their acknowledgement, "that a poem is the discovery and enactment of an emotional and psychological investigation into the vexed interiority of a speaker, that the interior is indeed political—and that every poem, every time, in some miraculous way, must be an argument about the making of poetry itself."
Or, as Paul Tran wrote in their acknowledgement, "that a poem is the discovery and enactment of an emotional and psychological investigation into the vexed interiority of a speaker, that the interior is indeed political—and that every poem, every time, in some miraculous way, must be an argument about the making of poetry itself."
Displaying 1 - 30 of 221 reviews