[9. Elliptical / Tangential]

Nam Le

Tell it slant.

Did you know

 You can make a perfect circle

  With only straight lines

     If you honour every tangent.

           Hybrid of thereness and not.

                Asymptotic, liminal event

                   Between:

                       Space with no value

                             Lines with no width.

                                  The limen defines itself.

                                         The limit approaches.

                                                           A white complicity.

                                                                           An inference.

Nam Le is the author of the forthcoming collection 36 Ways of Writing a Vietnamese Poem. His work has received major awards in America, Europe, and Australia and is widely translated and taught.
Originally published:
October 18, 2023

Featured

Rachel Cusk

The novelist on the “feminine non-state of non-being”
Merve Emre

Books

Renaissance Women

A new book celebrates—and sells short—Shakespeare’s sisters
Catherine Nicholson

Fady Joudah

The poet on how the war in Gaza changed his work
Aria Aber

You Might Also Like




Subscribe

New perspectives, enduring writing. Join a conversation 200 years in the making. Subscribe to our print journal and receive four beautiful issues per year.
Subscribe