RIGOBERTO GONZĂLEZ is the author of two previous collections. He teaches at Rutgers University.
STARRED REVIEW- -The poems in Gonzalez's third collection are
rooted in the female body. Death and decay also thread through the
collection, manifesting in lush and sensuous imagery. In the title
poem, Gonzalez addresses barren women in dark, graphic language
that borders on the grotesque: -when the sun sets next it will//
blossom with the blackest mushrooms and the moths/ will lay their
eggs on your leathery smiles.- Gonzalez's poems depict the body as
a space that carries burden and loss, the site of a fleeting life:
-this is the part where the woman enters./ This is the part where
she leaves. Her life/ so quick it could have been missed had she
left no evidence of the blackbird to construct/ its nest.- Each of
us is insignificant and replaceable, Gonzalez seems to say:
-borrowed body, in the time you must vacate, // let another take
your space./ Don't worry about whom or when since the girl/ who
comes after is already here.- The last section (of four) is told
through the voices of the female characters surrounding a
mortician. Lust and marriage, birth and death, weave together in
their observations and confessions. The mortician's wife observes,
-sound is death because it's/ irretrievable and every time I speak
I die a little more.----Publisher's Weekly
STARRED REVIEW- The poems in Gonzalez s third collection are rooted
in the female body. Death and decay also thread through the
collection, manifesting in lush and sensuous imagery. In the title
poem, Gonzalez addresses barren women in dark, graphic language
that borders on the grotesque: when the sun sets next it will//
blossom with the blackest mushrooms and the moths/ will lay their
eggs on your leathery smiles. Gonzalez s poems depict the body as a
space that carries burden and loss, the site of a fleeting life:
this is the part where the woman enters./ This is the part where
she leaves. Her life/ so quick it could have been missed had she
left no evidence of the blackbird to construct/ its nest. Each of
us is insignificant and replaceable, Gonzalez seems to say:
borrowed body, in the time you must vacate, // let another take
your space./ Don t worry about whom or when since the girl/ who
comes after is already here. The last section (of four) is told
through the voices of the female characters surrounding a
mortician. Lust and marriage, birth and death, weave together in
their observations and confessions. The mortician s wife observes,
sound is death because it s/ irretrievable and every time I speak I
die a little more. Publisher s Weekly"
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