Floating, Brilliant Gone Summary

Franny Choi is a 26 year old Korean-American poet, her first book of poetry Floating, Brilliant, Gone addresses themes such as issues with self-identity, racism, and sexism. Choi was a finalist for the Ruth Lily Poetry Fellowship, as well as being a finalist in the three major national poetry slams. In addition to being an author, Choi also teaches, and is the co-coordinator of the Providence Poetry Slam.
I first encountered Choi on Facebook through a post by PBS. The station had featured one of her poems that she had written in light of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, and the shooting in San Bernardino, California. I was interested in the fact that a major network would feature the work of a young. Female poet, who is relatively unknown,
For example, the poem “Never Here” is a visual poem, and almost takes on the characteristics of a choose-you-own story, as there are 3 parts of the poem that diverge off with arrows. The first eight lines beginning, “When the girl / finally learned” (Never Here 1-2), leads in to two possible continuations of the lines, “Shadow. / They / roosted / in”, and “flesh – feather / and beak. / They lived.” These boxed in lines then branch out to other possibilities, leaving the reader to decide how to finish the poem. I think Choi’s intention here was to involve the reader in the poem in way that feels as if they are part of making the poem, rather than just readers, they can create new lines, and offer a difference perspective to how the poem is read, as there is no correct way to finish the poem. Another of Choi’s poems that makes interesting use of the physical space on the page is, “Tornado.” On the page, the stanzas look like little tornados, they start off wide and become smaller as you move down the page. This poem uses the image of a tornado to depict of the speaker feels as they are revolting against an oppressive