carmen-bugan-lilies-from-america-new-and-selected-poems

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From this collection, “And now, the words” and “Love” in Literary Matters.

 

“The locus of Bugan’s essential self, however, appears to be the soil of her native land and its manifestation in folkways, which articulate the changes of season—in nature and, metaphorically, in human life—and which, though traditional, permit expressions of spontaneity.”–Literary Matters

“I can say that I feel like I have lived through the eyes of Carmen Bugan. With vehemence and delicacy, she criticizes tyranny, nationalism, language, and adulthood. Bugan is a poet who elevates these painful realities and provides a fragile lens for us to view the plights of the oppressed.”–Tint Journal

“Carmen Bugan’s poems prove a worthwhile witness… Despite the gentleness of the language, they explore the sinister nature of humanity…” –The Blue Nib

“Bugan’s poetry is inspired by her childhood containing the political imprisonment of her father and exile of her family, and then by her experiences in the U.S. Her writing musters perseverance and suggests ways to keep going despite change and parting and borders.” –Martha Stuit in Former U-M professor Carmen Bugan’s new poetry collection, “Lilies From America,” relates nature and the human experience

“Bugan rejects such high-flown mystification, choosing the eloquence of clarity and integrity–integrity meaning truthful, just, but also durable, sound in construction–a soundness attained by stripping the verse down to pictures and events given solidity by sensory details. Her mantra might be ‘No patriotism but in things’–things turned into images cut on a printer’s block. […] in these poems is an earnest voice, quiet but determined, taut with the discipline to sail past temptation, like Odysseus among the sirens—temptations to lose one’s self in lamentation, accusation, revenge.”–The Manhattan Review