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samwreads's review
5.0
I stumbled across this book in a poetry bookstore and kept going back to the store to read its poems. The fifth time I went back I bought the book.
I don't think I ever truly finish a book of poetry that I love. I see myself returning to this one for a long time to come.
I don't think I ever truly finish a book of poetry that I love. I see myself returning to this one for a long time to come.
scrow1022's review
5.0
The language is often sparse but the feel is lush, sensuous, in its use of form, call back to visual art, concrete description of body movement and touch, and the juxtaposition of startling images.
spacestationtrustfund's review
2.0
[...] Once,("Our Completion: Oil on Wood: Tino RodrÃguez: 1999")
after weeks of rain, he sliced a potato in half
to remind me of the moon.
To put it bluntly, I was not that impressed by the majority of these poems. Maybe I wasn't the right audience for them; maybe they're just not that good. The best poems were those about Corral's relationship with his father and their struggle with cultural identity and immigration (i.e., "In Colorado My Father Scoured and Stacked Dishes," "Immigration and Naturalization Service Report #46," etc.); the distinction between his father's status as an "illegal" and Corral's own as an "Illegal-American"; the poems dedicated to victims of immigration control officers at the US-Mexico border; etc.
My right hand("Self-Portrait with Tumbling and Lasso")
a pistol. My left
automatic. I'm knocking
on every door.
I'm coming on strong,
like a missionary.
I'm kicking back
my legs, like a mule. I'm kicking up
my legs, like
a showgirl.
I asked once for a sonnet. You("To the Beastangel")
peeled back the skin and muscle of your left hand: fourteen bones.
At one point Corral quoted Joseph Beuys: "Ladies and gentlemen, once again I would like to begin with the wound." This was my favourite line.
whoz_ophelia's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.0
I LOVED this collection! I haven't read much magical realism/ surrealist poetry this year, but this collection truly opened my eyes to what poetry could be. The language and imagery was perfectly brutal and beautiful; lines like "Once a man offered me his heart and I said no...Do you understand? In bed while we slept, our bodies inches apart, the dark between our flesh a wick. It was burning down. And he couldn't feel it." cut you to the bone.
Some poems, like the poems that open and close the book, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, dodge expectations and instead dive into surreality with dark and sensuous imagery. In other poems, Eduardo C. Corral explores the harsh realities of immigrant life on the border with ruthless honesty.
My favorite poems were "Self-Portrait with Tumbling and Lasso," "Poem after Frida Kahlo's Painting The Broken Column," and "Monologue of a Vulture's Shadow."
Some poems, like the poems that open and close the book, Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome, dodge expectations and instead dive into surreality with dark and sensuous imagery. In other poems, Eduardo C. Corral explores the harsh realities of immigrant life on the border with ruthless honesty.
My favorite poems were "Self-Portrait with Tumbling and Lasso," "Poem after Frida Kahlo's Painting The Broken Column," and "Monologue of a Vulture's Shadow."
bananafreckles's review
5.0
Oh man. Layers upon layers of skill and craft and beauty. I'm just in awe.
sam8834's review
4.0
Slow Lightning is a collection that doesn't shy away from the controversy, ugliness, and despair that honesty breeds. Corral tells stories that hit you and stick with you, as in "Border Triptych", and his more personal confessions (he begins the second part of "Ditat Deus" with the lines "I learned to make love to a man / by touching my father") will all but shatter you, while also reminding you that what you're reading will not cheat you and hold back anything.
A short but intensely sensual work that's worth reading (also worth noting is the brilliant foreword by Carl Phillips that more than complements the collection - I wish more modern poetry books would have introductions like this one).
A short but intensely sensual work that's worth reading (also worth noting is the brilliant foreword by Carl Phillips that more than complements the collection - I wish more modern poetry books would have introductions like this one).