Book of Mirrors

Yun Wang is the author of poetry books The Book of Totality (Salmon Poetry Press, 2015) and The Book of Jade (Winner of the 15th Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize, Story Line Press, 2002), and the book of poetry translations Dreaming of Fallen Blossoms: Tune Poems of Su Dong-Po (White Pine Press, 2019). Wang’s poems have been published in numerous literary journals, including The Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, Cimarron Review, Salamander Magazine, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Green Mountains Review, and International Quarterly. Her translations of classical Chinese poetry have been published in The Kenyon Review Online, Salamander Magazine, Poetry Canada Review, Willow Springs, Kyoto Journal, Bat City Review, Xavier Review, Connotation Press, and elsewhere. Wang was born in China, and came to the U.S. for graduate school in 1985. She is an astrophysicist at California Institute of Technology, currently focusing on developing space missions to explore the Universe.

"Her poems are not only beautiful, but astounding in their richness of information, news, glimpses, and inklings from more dimensions of world and mind than I can account for. Each poem is a potent nexus of imagination, memory, and piercing analysis. Yun Wang is a seer." —Li-Young Lee“In Yun Wang’s The Book of Mirrors, “a silver portal opens to the hidden garden” of a fragrant universe. Myths, tales, and lyrical excavations reveal passageways that traverse inner and outer spaces humming with desire. Her collection is a generous invitation: each poem is a threshold to a world within a world.” —Jennifer Kwon Dobbs, judge

• IFace on Mars2Superstition of a Caged Bird3Cleopatra’s Dream4Regret5Sapphire6Bach’s Chaconne7Black Roses8Nocturne I10Muse with a Brown Paper Bag11Liebestraum12Poppies13Sirius14IIThe Nun and the Prince16Nine Springs 17The Lovers of Teruel18Frida With Hummingbirds19Casanova: a Translation from Fellini 20The Mirror’s Edge21A Night in Athens22San Francisco Bay at Night23Neighbors in Bathrobes24Nocturne II25Frondescence 26Winter Seascape 27Minuet 28Ever After29Flowers in the Mirror 30III Hidden 32The Visitation33Shadow Test34Children’s Game in Baghdad35Green Stars36An Ancient Ice Bridge Breaks37Contact38The Beetle from Outer Space 39Walking on Mars40Saturn’s Moons41Seascape at Santa Monica42Thousands of Years in a Glance43Migration44IVHorse by the Mountain Stream46August Dream 47Immortality48Sam’s Plan49Sam’s Questions50Supermoon51Seascape at South Padre Island52Gifted with Beauty53Snow Angel54Transformation55The Burren 56Fuerteventura at Night57The Butterfly58Epiphany59Forecasts60