| How Long She'll Last in This World Contributor(s): Melendez Kelson, Maria (Author) |
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ISBN: 0816525153 ISBN-13: 9780816525157 Publisher: University of Arizona Press OUR PRICE: $15.26 Product Type: Paperback Published: March 2006 Annotation: With this invocation, Maria Melendez beckons us on a journey--an exotic expedition through life's mysteries in search of the finer strands of experience. In a Latina voice laced with a naturalist's sense of wonder, she weaves bold images reflecting a world threaded by unseen wounds, now laid before us with an unflinching love of life and an exquisite precision of language. Adopting multiple guises--field researcher, laboring mother, grief-stricken lover--Melendez casts aside stereotypes and expectations to forge a new language steeped in life and landscape. Whether meditating on a controlled prairie burn or contemplating the turquoise cheek of a fathead minnow, she weaves words and memories into a rich tapestry that resonates with sensual detail and magnifies her sense of maternal wildness, urging us to "Love as much as you /can, don't throw your heart / away to just one god." In her paean to the Aztec deity Tonacacihuatl, mother of the gods, Melendez muses that "How many spirits she's twin to, and how long she'll last in this world, / are secrets stashed in the rattle / of corn ears, in the coils / of venomous snakes." Through stunning images and stark realism, her poems embrace motherhood and vocation, love and grief, land and life, to bring new meaning to the natural world and how we experience it. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | American - Hispanic American - Poetry | Women Authors |
| Dewey: 811.6 |
| LCCN: 2005017354 |
| Series: Camino del Sol |
| Physical Information: 0.29" H x 6.1" W x 8.04" (0.33 lbs) 96 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Let go your keys, let go your gun, let go your good pen and your rings, let your wolf mask go and kiss goodbye your goddess figurine. With this invocation, Mar a Mel ndez beckons us on a journey--an exotic expedition through life's mysteries in search of the finer strands of experience. In a Latina voice laced with a naturalist's sense of wonder, she weaves bold images reflecting a world threaded by unseen wounds, now laid before us with an unflinching love of life and an exquisite precision of language. Adopting multiple guises--field researcher, laboring mother, grief-stricken lover--Mel ndez casts aside stereotypes and expectations to forge a new language steeped in life and landscape. Whether meditating on a controlled prairie burn or contemplating the turquoise cheek of a fathead minnow, she weaves words and memories into a rich tapestry that resonates with sensual detail and magnifies her sense of maternal wildness, urging us to "Love as much as you / can, don't throw your heart / away to just one god." In her paean to the Aztec deity Tonacacihuatl, mother of the gods, Mel ndez muses that "How many spirits she's twin to, and how long she'll last in this world, / are secrets stashed in the rattle / of corn ears, in the coils / of venomous snakes." Through stunning images and stark realism, her poems embrace motherhood and vocation, love and grief, land and life, to bring new meaning to the natural world and how we experience it. |