Celadon

Advance Readers' Copy, 92 pages "Celadon reflects on hard work in an era of depersonalization. Ian Haight's poems portray Midwestern factory workers, Korean farmers, Chinese migrants miners, and exploited child laborers. Through a contemplation of globalization and the refuge from it that art could offer, Celadon searches for a place where one can live with peace and dignity. These poems draw specific inspiration from the valleys of Kaya—an ancient kingdom situated in present-day Korea—where celadon potters have lived for over 1,500 years. The valleys are an enclave for artists of all kinds, many of them ceramicists creating their works of art according to practices and traditions hundreds of years old. The community is a place where people have come together to live, ultimately, for art—and it has endured, regardless of the exertions of war, political gamesmanship, and power, for at least eighteen centuries." (jc53118)