Bardo (Wisconsin Poetry Series) (Volume 1998)

ISBN: 0299160106

Author: Paola, Suzanne

Condition: New

Suzanne Paola fuses the Tibetan bardo journey with Western epic tradition in ways that are both comic and harrowing. Bardo is the intermediate state after death when the soul wanders through the heavens and the hells while trying to avoid rebirth into samsara-the realm of the material-and to instead reach nirvana. Paola presents a series of this lifes bardo experiences: drug use, the refused birth of infertility, the social implications of the female body, even a trip to the fantastic afterworld of pop culture. Bardos journey travels to a place where to be human is to be part god, / part sickness, / always wondering which is which.