Kimiko Hahn
Toxic Flora
Passion
Artist Statement: Talking & Listening to Plants
I don’t think of myself: I don’t think of myself more or less attached to the botanical world. On the other hand (or limb, as the case may be), of course I am attached, and in fact, captivated. I grew up in the suburbs, which I intensely disliked but that surrounded me with leaves, both noun and verb. My parents enjoyed growing things in our scruffy yard and indoor pots: bamboo, lilies of the valley, wisteria, mosses. Also, bonsai. I didn’t pay attention because I was not interested. Not consciously. Still, living in NYC for decades now, I adore bits of nature. Dandelion in pavement cracks, silver dollars in a parking lot, stinky ginkgo. I stop to break off a Queen Anne’s lace and pop it into a glass of water on my desk. She is dear and tells me, “I love you, too.”
KIMIKO HAHN is the author of ten books of poetry, most recently Foreign Bodies (W.W. Norton, 2020), an exploration of how objects govern our lives from intimate moments to current events. In previous collections, she takes heart in investigating climate change, class conflict, and her own personal tumult. Hahn, whose honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship PEN/Voelcker Award, and Shelley Memorial Prize, is a distinguished professor in the MFA Program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation at Queens College, City University of New York.