Symbols
This object in the poem represents distance and love.
What is the moon?
Chen Chen was born in this country before moving to the United States.
What is China?
The poem is written from this point of view.
What is first person?
Chen Chen’s debut book belongs to this literary genre.
What is poetry?
Chen Chen is recognized as this kind of modern-day writer.
What is a contemporary poet?
The moon setting symbolizes this desire to espace from reality into a more accepting or imaginative space.
What is escape or escapism?
Chen Chen was born in this year.
What is 1989?
In the poem, this emotion is explored in a more complicated way than a simple, happy feeling.
What is love?
The poem is part of Chen Chen’s debut collection titled this.
What is “When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities”?
This is the name of the prestigious fellowship Chen Chen has received for his poetry.
What is the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship?
The “moon cottage” and “moon garden” symbolize this kind of shared future between the speaker and their partner.
What is a domestic life or building life together?
He attended this university.
What is Tufts University?
This literary device is used in the title phrase to exaggerate the distance used to describe love.
What is hyperbole?
Chen Chen’s writing often explores these four themes.
What is love, family, identity, and humor?
Chen Chen’s work often explores themes related to this aspect of identity, including his experience as a queer Asian American.
What is cultural and sexual identity?
The phrase “queer moon gravity” symbolzies a world that is freer from these societal constraints.
What are norms or expectations?
This U.S. region is where Chen Chen grew up after his family moved from China.
What is Massachusetts?
This poetic technique, shown through repeated phrases like “lets love”, helps highlight feeling and create a steady rhythm.
What is repeition/repeated?
Chen Chen won several awards.
What is Thom Gunn Award, GLAAD Media Award, A. Poulin Jr.Poetry Prize, and Lambda Literary Award?
Chen Chen recently came out with this new book.
What is Love that for us?
The repeated idea of going to and living on the moon symbolizes this broader theme about love & identity.
What is queer love or freedom to love openly?
His childhood experiences strongly influenced his writing about this central theme.
What is identity (or cultural identity)?
This theme appears as the speaker connects love with personal identity, including culture and belonging.
What is identity?
“When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities” was published during this year.
What is 2017?
Chen Chen published some books.
What is three?