Watchword

Poems in which words stand among things as things themselves, luminous objects that lead elsewhere, from matter to memory and back. Italicised words scattered through the book form a second, private text, and each works like a password: say it and a door opens onto what it names, as 'almond' opens onto the blood-bitterness of the fruit. The poet returns to her lasting themes, the stiff images of childhood, a bodily journey through the landscape of the spirit, human helplessness and the lonely fire of intelligence, and catches moments of revelation in language. The scenes range from three horses wading into a clear river beside the speaker to a creature suffocating in a black rubbish bag.

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About the book

Form

Poetry

Length

101 pages in the original

First published

2007 by Fondo de Cultura Económica

Author's age

55 when first published

ISBN

9789681684808 (original)

9780819571182 (Wesleyan University Press, United States)