January POtM - The Ants by Sawako Nakayasu
Title: The Ants
Author: Sawako Nakayasu
Published: 2014
Rating: ★★★★
“When I tell the story about the man who came up to me and opened up his bag and offered me one of a teeming million wiggling ants in his bag, the whole table goes silent and I am reminded all over again how hard it is to get along with the women in this country.”
I first saw Nakayasu when she visited my college to speak as part of a creative arts festival held every year. An esteemed professor at Brown University, she seemed at first soft-spoken, serious. But when her reading of this wonderful work began, she immediately captured the audience in fits of laughter and entrancement.
The Ants is a collection of poems that revolves around the title insect. Human experiences are shrunk to the level of the amorous aphid, and why shouldn’t they be? This delightful work helps one put our everyday lives in perspective. These poems allow us to feel as though a wide range of troubles and annoyances from our lives are themselves carried away on the back of the bug. Furthermore, Nakayasu creates a strange and humbling equality between the human lens and the insect. I found these poems humorous as often as I found them astounding.
There is a lot to say about the lightness and oddity of this piece. Nakayasu couples so many tiny aspects of our tiny lives with the narrative journeys of ants, butterflies, and caterpillars. It was simply a joy to read this book. Nakayasu has formed an enchanting piece of work that will call you back to it over and over.
