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Cover for Directions to the Beach of the Dead book
2005
4.5(20 reviews)
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
96 pages
ISBN: 978-0816524792
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Directions to the Beach of the Dead

Description

In his second book of narrative, lyric poetry , Richard Blanco explores the familiar, unsettling journey for home and connections, those anxious musings about other lives: &;Should I live here? Could I live here?&; Whether the exotic (&;I&;m struck with Maltese fever &;I dream of buying a little Maltese farm&;) or merely different (&;Today, home is a cottage with morning in the yawn of an open window&;&;), he examines the restlessness that threatens from merely staying put, the fear of too many places and too little time. The words are redolent with his Cuban heritage: Marina making mole sauce; Tía Ida bitter over the revolution, missing the sisters who fled to Miami; his father, especially, &;his hair once as black as the black of his oxfords&;&; Yet this is a volume for all who have longed for enveloping arms and words, and for that sanctuary called home. &;So much of my life spent like this-suspended, moving toward unknown places and names or returning to those I know, corresponding with the paradox of crossing, being nowhere yet here.&; Blanco embraces juxtaposition. There is the Cuban Blanco, the American Richard, the engineer by day, the poet by heart, the rhythms of Spanish, the percussion of English, the first-world professional, the immigrant, the gay man, the straight world. There is the ennui behind the question: why cannot I not just live where I live? Too, there is the precious, fleeting relief when he can write "&;I am, for a moment, not afraid of being no more than what I hear and see, no more than this:..." It is what we all hope for, too.

Book Information

Title:Directions to the Beach of the Dead
Author:Richard Blanco
Series:Poetry Collections
Published:2005
Pages:96
ISBN-10:816524793
ISBN-13:978-0816524792

Series Progress

This book is part of the Poetry Collections series.