Bones Will Crow

In the 1930s, a swathe of poets in Burma were determined to break away from traditional poetic forms and introduce a more modern and progressive poetics that would reflect the new and changing politics of their country. The subsequent “school” was called khitsan. Several variants developed during the late twentieth century, despite the strong arm of government censorship, each of them determined to put at their centre new ideas using speech rhythms and Burmese dialects.Bones Will Crow includes the work of leading Burmese poets who fairly represent all new post-khitsan movements – from khitpor to ‘Language-oriented’ poetry. This is the first anthology of contemporary Burmese poetry to be published in the West. It introduces 15 poets from the post-colonial era right up to a new generation who are beginning to emerge from a country that has suffered from years of military dictatorship.