from time to new by Lydia Kwa is a collection of poems that weaves themes of alienation and reconciliation between the past and the present. It is work that explores themes of grieving and recovery from illness, touching on the unseen aspects of surviving intergenerational trauma, on the challenges of being part of the Asian diaspora in North America in a time of rising violence against BIPOC people, and on the isolation that accompanies living through a global pandemic. Through all these elements, the collection asserts the love of self as inseparable from the care of others.
"Through these spacious yet intimate poems, Kwa touches our psyches with the precision of an acupuncturist and the compassion of a wise auntie. Dwelling in the tender threshold between life and death, Kwa's poetry is guided by truth as its compass, offering solace and insight to the vulnerable and the grieving. Moments of supple beauty, wry humour, and irrepressible memory flow through this book, transforming its readers." — Rita Wong, author of Beholden: A Poem as Long as the River
"In from time to new Lydia Kwa considers absence as a flavour of language, a spice on the tongue. These clear poems travel towards the death of her mother, gathering images from Singapore and threading them with precision through the poet's life in Vancouver. Short lines track the ceaseless transformation of the body from being in illness into being again. In Kwa's hands the poem considers life the way the koel bird on the branch might: echoing with precision all that it observes. This is a compassionate and skillful meditation; a pleasure to savour." — Elee Kraljii Gardiner, author of Trauma Head