Rules of the House

Dhompa's potent suite of poems elucidates and vocalizes the humanness and adversities of the Tibetan diaspora. The praxes of exile and passage--literal and as in "rites of..."--are enacted here, soothing complex dynamics of family and "house." The moveable hearth is a map of rare ritual and unique, curious attentions. You enter the immigrant girl-child's bifurcated world, coming and going, language to language, culture to culture, from childhood to sexuality, taking Dhompa's ride in her elegantly adopted American-English poet's "tongue." A lovely explication of "dharma"--things as they are and how precious they are no special pleading-- as interestingly fractured, cross-genred narrative poetry. Full of song.--Anne Waldman