A Buddhist blessing: meditations and mindfulness in Souvankham Thammavongsa's Small Arguments

As Souvankham Thammavongsa admits, her poetry collections Small Arguments (2003), Found (2006) and Light (2013) have suffered from a lack of thorough criticism, as critics seem primarily interested in exploring Thammavongsa's refugee origins rather than the intricacies of her poetry. However, there is room and reason to read Thammavongsa's work through a Buddhist lens and in the context of other Buddhist-influenced Canadian poets, such as Phyllis Webb and Roo Borson, as Buddhist tenets are to be found not only in Thammavongsa's subject matter, but also in her minimalist aesthetic. Keywords: Souvankham Thammavongsa, Roo Borson, Phyllis Web, Canadian poetry, Buddhism, nature, feminism
In this article, I wish to redress the lack of significant critical content in the scant criticism of Souvankham Thammavongsa's poetry collection Small Arguments (2003) by exploring the Buddhist underpinnings [...]