“What Island,” a book of poems by former College of Marshall Islands instructor PK Harmon, is a great read for those interested in island-related thoughts.
“PK Harmon meditates on the limits of the rational mind in its encounters with the mysteries of nature, chance and time,” said Mark Halliday in his foreword to the book. “Harmon’s poetry vibrates with the tension between dreaminess and responsibility; the theme is crystallized in these lines from the poem, ‘What Foot’: ‘I get way out there on the water in the sky/feeling pretty beautiful actually but then look down/to my foot and the print it inevitably has to make.’”
In keeping with the “What” theme in the title, the title of every poem in the 85-page book begins with this word, which one might think would be a restrictive pattern but in actuality allowed Harmon to cover an amazing range of topics in the “What” department: moon, love, lips, Bob, prayer, neighbor’s wife, possibilities, fetus, drifting, Bikini and much more. Harmon is currently an instructor at the University of Guam.
The book is available through amazon.com.