CARVINGS FROM AN HEIRLOOM: ORAL HISTORY POEMS

By Helene Pilibosian

Carvings from an Heirloom: Oral History Poems is Helene Pilibosian's first book of poems, published in 1983 under the imprint Ohan Press. The book contains 64 short poems which are based on information from interviews with her parents about their village of origin in historic Armenia, which is now in Turkey. The first half of the book presents incidents and characterizations from this area of folk life with appropriate simple styling; the second half of the book relates more to the Armenian-American life and nostalgia for what was left behind. There are interviews with a town doctor; there are many references to bilingual or Armenian-English experience; there are references to herbs and superstitions of the old life; there are references to old photographs. All these present a picture of a folk life of the past in a straightforward but symbolic style.

Ohan Press (1983)