1. Kaveh Akbar and Ocean Vuong–two foreign-born but Americanized poets who are barely 30 years old (and, in fact, good friends with each other). Using one poem from each, consider the ways in which these poets are–in their formal goals, thematic interests, and poetic voices–similar and different.
2. Ocean Vuong & Kono Taeko each explore the ways in which sexuality can serve as a response to and escape from physical and/or social violence. Compare, contrast, and synthesize Vuong’s “Ode to Masturbation” and Taeko’s “Toddler-Hunting” in order to try to explain how these writers think about the intimacy of sexuality compared to the publicness of living in an othered body.
Aubade with Burning City BY OCEAN VUONG : https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/56769/aubade-with-burning-city
seventh-circle-of-earth BY OCEAN VUONG: https://onbeing.org/poetry/seventh-circle-of-earth/
Do You Speak Persian – Kaveh Akbar:
https://www.splitthisrock.org/poetry-database/poem/do-you-speak-persian
