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anika_bush's review against another edition
5.0
I went out searching for you
crossing valleys
and mountains
ploughing distant seas
asking of the clouds
and the wind your whereabouts
it was useless
useless
you were within me.
This collection was written as Claribel Alegria went on a month-long trip through Asia that she'd planned with her husband, who had died before they were able to go. I bawled my way through this slim collection.
It was beautiful and heart-warming/wrenching.
crossing valleys
and mountains
ploughing distant seas
asking of the clouds
and the wind your whereabouts
it was useless
useless
you were within me.
This collection was written as Claribel Alegria went on a month-long trip through Asia that she'd planned with her husband, who had died before they were able to go. I bawled my way through this slim collection.
It was beautiful and heart-warming/wrenching.
ulyssesm's review against another edition
5.0
Un poemario que tocas las arterias más sinceras del amor.
faonsang's review against another edition
5.0
"Sin embargo es ahora; sólo ahora; después de tu partida; sin retorno; que sé que ya eres mío; para siempre."
dreesreads's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
This collection focuses on grief and loneliness after the death of Alegria's husband. Grief, sadness, memories, loss, and the thoughts of an older woman who knows she will be joining her husband soon. Alegria died in 2018 at the age of 94.
xterminal's review
2.0
Claribel Alegria, Sorrow (Curbstone Press, 1999)
Sorrow, a book of poems lamenting the death of Alegria's husband, is the kind of thing that, in a perfect world, would be immune to criticism. But, as Wilde so forthrightly put it, “all bad poetry is sincere.” This is no exception. The poems in this collection are barely poems at all, but more often are simply thoughts chopped up into lines to make them appear poetic. “Show, don't tell” has left the building for this one, folks.
“I don't want eternity
it overwhelms me
I want to be alive
while I live
without thinking
about why
I live...”
(“I Don't Want Eternity”)
There are a few pieces here where Alegria still seems to grasp the essence of poetry (and translator Carolyn Forche seizes on two of them in her introduction, the best part of the book), but they are in the minority here. This one didn't work for me at all. **
Sorrow, a book of poems lamenting the death of Alegria's husband, is the kind of thing that, in a perfect world, would be immune to criticism. But, as Wilde so forthrightly put it, “all bad poetry is sincere.” This is no exception. The poems in this collection are barely poems at all, but more often are simply thoughts chopped up into lines to make them appear poetic. “Show, don't tell” has left the building for this one, folks.
“I don't want eternity
it overwhelms me
I want to be alive
while I live
without thinking
about why
I live...”
(“I Don't Want Eternity”)
There are a few pieces here where Alegria still seems to grasp the essence of poetry (and translator Carolyn Forche seizes on two of them in her introduction, the best part of the book), but they are in the minority here. This one didn't work for me at all. **
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