A Love Story Beginning In Spanish

by Cofer, Judith Ortiz

• ISBN13: 9780820327426
• ISBN10: 0820327425
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-04-25
• Publisher: Univ of Georgia Pr

Summary

Judith Ortiz Cofer's third volume of poetry collects thirty-four poems written over the course of many years. In places as stark as a New Jersey barrio or fabled as the island home of Penelope and Odysseus, the people in these poems sometimes resist, sometimes reconcile, multiple cultures, tongues, and traditions as they navigate over ever-changing landscapes.

Author Biography

Judith Ortiz Cofer is a Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing at the University of Georgia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	ix
ONE: BEGINNING IN SPANISH
Beans: An Apologia for Not Loving to Cook	3	(2)
Before the Storm	5	(2)
Lessons of the Past	7	(2)
A Theory of Chaos: October 1962	9	(2)
Dominoes: A Meditation on the Game	11	(2)
from A Sailor's Wife's journal	13	(6)
Siempre	19	(2)
The Poet's Work	21	(1)
Here Is a Picture of Me	22	(1)
That Old Tune	23	(2)
First Job: The Southern Sweets Sandwich Shop and Bakery	25	(3)
Notes for My Daughter Studying Math on the Morning of a New Year	28	(2)
Where You Need to Go	30	(5)
TWO: EL AMOR, EL AZUL, A HIBISCUS
Rice: An Ars Poetica	35	(2)
The Superstition Poems
The Gift of a Knife	37	(1)
The Pleasures of Fear	38	(2)
The Lesson of the Tongue	40	(2)
La Fulana	42	(1)
Black Silk Shirt	43	(1)
The Arms of a Good Woman	44	(1)
Old Women in Their Rooms	45	(1)
The Cruel Season	46	(2)
Alms Outside the Package Store, Peachtree Street	48	(1)
I Give You the Hibiscus	49	(1)
Hispanic Barbie with Accessories	50	(2)
Bed-Making in a Foreign Country	52	(1)
Found Poem: Charm for the Love of a Woman	53	(1)
Saint, Hair, Water	54	(1)
The Art of Scrying: A Poem for My Birthday	55	(1)
The Calculus of Freedom	56	(1)
Seizing the Day	57	(1)
To Understand El Azul	58	(1)
The Names of the Dead: An Essay on the Phrase	59	(2)
Gifts	61	(6)
THREE: A LOVE STORY
El Amor: A Story Beginning in Spanish	67	(1)
About the Author	68