Blood Rivers; Poems of Texture from the Border

by Garca, Lisha Adela; First World Library

• ISBN13: 9781421891347
• ISBN10: 1421891344
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-09-11
• Publisher: Gardners Books

Summary

Lisha Adela García¿s splendid debut full-length collection of poems, Blood Rivers, follows the legacy of blood¿spilled, spared, reviled, holy, singled-out, intermingled, and sustaining. These are poems of cultural border crossings and personal boundary breaches as seen from the female perspective. Her ¿whole life is the geography between¿two countries, two cultures, two languages,¿ the Rio Grande, ¿hugging both sides¿ of her story. She envisions her ¿long black tongue, a computer / chewing the lessons of history.¿ The poems can be scathing, calling us out for our absurdities, as in ¿St, Francis in Mesilla¿ where we hear how ¿War tames the sassy wildness of the rich / who justify themselves later by becoming Buddhists / who sell meditation tapes.¿ And these poems can also be gentle, calling out to our best selves, as in ¿Quizás¿ where we hear ¿Love is a waltz / starving death for a moment.¿ This collection speaks to the challenges of our blended native, Spanish, colonist, immigrant North American culture in the way Neruda¿s Canto General spoke to Chile¿s challenges. Lisha Adela García tells us ¿Women are doors¿. Allow this woman poet¿s voice to open into you like a door to your heart and be your guide along treacherous Blood Rivers. You will find her to be a compass of lavender / sage and a new breeze.¿ ¿Lana Hechtman Ayers, author, publisher