The Marriage of the Portuguese

by Pereira, Sam; Gaspar, Frank X.

• ISBN13: 9781933227344
• ISBN10: 1933227346
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-04-10
• Publisher: Tagus Pr at Univ of Massachusetts

Summary

In this newly expanded edition of The Marriage of the Portuguese, first published in 1978, Sam Pereira encounters the world as it exists now, three decades later, and weaves poetry around his signature realization of sometimes painful, sometimes joyous experience. Often cynical and at times somewhat risque, this is the work of a man who has lived fully those three additional decades and survived them handily, having learned to accept life's uncertainties--indeed to embrace them--even as he recognizes that knowledge is at best fleeting. In poems evocative of times past, The Marriage of the Portuguese is replete with images of seas both literal and metaphorical--the earth's oceans and the troubled waters of the emotions. Throughout, he maintains the dignity his ancestors demanded, while intentionally courting risks that are inescapable. This is the work of someone fully experiencing what it means to be human in a society that continually threatens that humanity. Caught up in familial complexities inherent in being third-generation Portuguese in America, Pereira's theme remains one of positive belief--even if not strictly the belief of his ancestors, nevertheless belief true to his rich Portuguese heritage.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Foreword to the Expanded Edition

Preface

The Marriage of the Portuguese

A Disease

A Place Like Syosset

Backtrack: Home Again

Fado

Dying in California

Sursum Corda

Jubal

An Azure Definition

This Marriage Would Have No Children

Order to God

The Prayer These Days

Black Paper

Listen, I Would Have Wept

Charting a Course for Cancer

Names: A Wedding March

Sorrow

Events Up to the Deal

Anniversary Tale

Alcohol & Rooms

Friday Afternoon Devotions

A Farewell

The Finest Cities

As Though It Mattered

At Six There Was No Prayer

California Flush

Sabotage

Temporary

The Jars

A Later Marriage

Villanelle for an Old Man

The Importance of Meat When Distressed

Horoscope

The White Kaywoodie

The Wind Is Out of the East

Old Habits

Radio Hangover

The Sad Man's Orange Chambray

Nothing

The Biblical Nature of Bread

Fedora

In the Club Car Light

Cocktails with Girls

Another Murder to Music

A Hospital in California

The Return of Standard Time

The Gloxinia in Her Glass

The Sugars of Terceira

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