ISBN 978-0-9839975-2-8
$16.95 / $18.95 (Canada)
5.5 x 8.5 76 pp
PUB DATE: Spring 2012 Poetry
On the heels of The Book of Shadows; New and Selected Poems (Lost Horse Press, 2009) comes Pomegranate, Sister of the Heart. In his fifth full-length collection, poet and translator Carlos Reyes offers a lyrical and sometimes surreal vision of our world. The edgy tone of this collection represents a departure from his earlier work, but the omnibus quality of this book offers something for everyone. The poems “Terror in the Garden” and “Fifthlogic” set the tone of the book, defining the image of a pomegranate, first in its suggestion of violence (the Spanish for pomegranate is grenada, for grenade), then in its more benign aspect as a sister to the heart. The themes run the gamut from the bizarre to the sublime: “Blood” paints the image of a nude man hanging on the gallows with a frightful erection; “Mussolini’s Children” recalls yet another hanging; “In the Shadow of Sacre-Coeur” evokes the striking beauty of a Paris neighborhood. Political themes flavor these poems, from the anti-war sentiments in “Some Thoughts I Have at the Oregon Steel Mill,” recalling the bombing of Dresden; to environmental concerns such as water in “Down the Path from Imerovigila” and the footprint we leave on the earth in “Arizona Nocturne.” This collection balances the darker themes with lyrical and light moments: the poet sings of the tropics (“Song for a Caribbean Afternoon”), goes to Paris to visit Beckett and Baudelaire (“The Montparnasse Cemetery”), and stops in Spain to have the last dance with Antonio Gaudà (“Fame, I Want to Live Forever”).
Carlos Reyes’ poetry is as clear and strong as his social conscience. One is always struck by his sensual and sensory qualities: the touch, taste, feel, color of things, and his ability to capture a mood, a world, in a handful of lines.
—Carolyn Kizer
About the Author
Carlos Reyes
Poet and translator Carlos Reyes lives in Portland, Oregon when he is not traveling. He travels a lot, and whether he journeys to Panama, Spain, Alaska or Ireland, those experiences inspire and inform his poetry. In 2007 he was honored with a Heinrich Boll Fellowship, which gave him time to write on Achill Island in Ireland. He has had fellowships to Yaddo and the Fundación Valparaíso (Mojácar, Spain). He was poet-in-resident in 2009 at the Lost Horse Ranger Station in Joshua Tree National Park, and recently writer-in-residence at the Island Institute in Sitka, Alaska.