(un)measuring identity in Dempster's "Measure"

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There is a lot to consider in Brian Komei Dempster’s writing. What interests me, in addition to his approach to composition, tone, and subject matter, is how his poems in Asian American Poetry blend lyric and narrative elements together. As I think of his work in relationship to identity, I cannot help but wonder how these elements, often at odds in the “academic” world of poetry, evoke a complex sense of identity in Dempster’s work.

Dempster interweaves lyric and narrative styles through stylistic elements until I begin to feel the threads of each overlapping. In “Measure” there are moments that the lyric lines or transitions can be jarring, and effective in a poem about the effect of cancer, but for the most part the lyricism is subtle and contributes to the narrative.

The narrative begins immediately; however, a quiet sense of lyricism seeps through:

Uncle did I come to see you as only half a man

with your shaved head and lead blanket,

half the weight, half the breath, half the smile,

only half of you looking at the doctor

who loaded up the transparency, used a ruler

to show the tumor, its increments,

this angle 70%, that angle 50%, back at half

again, in this case your chance of living. (1-8)

What is clear is that the first line introduces us to the uncle and the speaker, the second line paints a picture of the uncle, and the following lines establish the situation and narrative.  The poem is addressed to the uncle “Uncle did I come to see you as only half a man,” (1) however, it also establishes a sense of incongruity. Who is the poem gesturing toward or trying to reach?  Despite how “Measure” begins it does not read like a conversation the speaker would have with his uncle nor does it read like a letter. In short it does not feel external.  Instead the poem feels like an internal expression from the speaker that we as the reader overhear. In that way the poem is a dramatic lyric. At the same, time the narrative is composed in long sentences and drives through the lyric composition like a truck at full speed making the narrative feel dominant.  

There is a lot of story in “Measure,” and it unfolds.  Yet the story is obscured in places by gaps or interruptions in the narrative. For example, the rigid caesura and interruptions of numbers in numeric form challenge the linearity of the driving narrative. These elements such as 50%, 70%, 3 doctors, and 5,126 swollen lymph’s are brief moments where the narrative feels displaced or outside of time. These pace-shifts and directional changes gesture more toward lyric poetry than narrative; for example, the last image in the poem “a single pine cone falling.”  In “Measure” Dempster creates a space between story and lyric that contains the poem beautifully.

The interplay of lyric and narrative creates structural tension.  The adding and subtracting of lyrical elements creates a complex poetic equation, which mirrors the fluctuating numbers in “Measure.” The numbers and poetic styles never quite add up. Instead they create a mixed identity between small and big, narrative and lyric, love and despair; There is no balance or singular answer and that works in “Measure.” The synchronization creates another identity—a more inclusive identity that cannot be measured.