Sweet Butter Tea

Book excerpt: Sweet Butter Tea is a collection of poems that spontaneously sprang from the most personal memories and childhood recollections of exiled Tibetan Ten Phun. Since his escape into India, Ten Phun has experienced a bewildering sense of loss, harrowing loneliness, as well as lively times in a borrowed space. This volume is peppered with eclectic images of confusion, nostalgia, and the poet's deep longing to be back in his home of Tibet. "I don't know how old my heart is, I only know my five-o'clock shadow tells it all," Ten Phun writes. This book of poetry promises a dizzying journey into a young adult refugee's struggles, dreams, and musings, all packed into bite-sized verses that grasp at truth and attempt to put into words the anguish of physical, emotional, and psychological dislocation.