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Homeland of My Body: New and Selected Poems
A rich, accomplished, intensely intimate collection with two full sections of new poems bookending Blanco’s selections from his five previous volumes
"An engineer, poet, Cuban American…his poetry bridges cultures and languages—a mosaic of our past, our present, and our future—reflecting a nation that is hectic, colorful, and still becoming."—President Joe Biden, conferring the National Humanities Medal on Richard Blanco, 2023
In this collection of over 100 poems, Richard Blanco has carefully selected poems from his previous books that represent his evolution as a writer grappling with his identity, working to find and define “home,” and bookended them with new poems that address those issues from a fresh, more mature perspective, allowing him to approach surrendering the pain and urgency of his past explorations. Pausing at this pivotal moment in mid-career, Blanco reexamines his life-long quest to find his proverbial home and all that it love, family, identity and ultimately art itself. In the closing section of the volume, he has come to understand and internalize the idea that “home” is not one place, not one thing, and lives both inside him and inside his art.
The poems range in form, voice, and setting, showcasing his command of craft, but in essence they are one continuous reflection on the existential question at the core of all of Blanco’s how can we find our place in the world. All are characterized by his keen eye, deep sensibility, and polished craft, without pretense. This volume is a gift to Blanco’s many readers but even more to those who have yet to discover that they can understand, and fall in love with poetry, that a poet can speak to them about his own and their own lives so profoundly, and that this poet, as Barack Obama discovered, can speak for all of us.
Richard Blanco has been justly celebrated for his poetic gifts and his command of the many forms poetry can take, from the finely structured to the prose poem formats. His previous volumes have been praised by Patricia Smith, Eileen Myles, Sandra Cisneros, Elizabeth Alexander, and many others. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic , and dozens of other publications.
"An engineer, poet, Cuban American…his poetry bridges cultures and languages—a mosaic of our past, our present, and our future—reflecting a nation that is hectic, colorful, and still becoming."—President Joe Biden, conferring the National Humanities Medal on Richard Blanco, 2023
In this collection of over 100 poems, Richard Blanco has carefully selected poems from his previous books that represent his evolution as a writer grappling with his identity, working to find and define “home,” and bookended them with new poems that address those issues from a fresh, more mature perspective, allowing him to approach surrendering the pain and urgency of his past explorations. Pausing at this pivotal moment in mid-career, Blanco reexamines his life-long quest to find his proverbial home and all that it love, family, identity and ultimately art itself. In the closing section of the volume, he has come to understand and internalize the idea that “home” is not one place, not one thing, and lives both inside him and inside his art.
The poems range in form, voice, and setting, showcasing his command of craft, but in essence they are one continuous reflection on the existential question at the core of all of Blanco’s how can we find our place in the world. All are characterized by his keen eye, deep sensibility, and polished craft, without pretense. This volume is a gift to Blanco’s many readers but even more to those who have yet to discover that they can understand, and fall in love with poetry, that a poet can speak to them about his own and their own lives so profoundly, and that this poet, as Barack Obama discovered, can speak for all of us.
Richard Blanco has been justly celebrated for his poetic gifts and his command of the many forms poetry can take, from the finely structured to the prose poem formats. His previous volumes have been praised by Patricia Smith, Eileen Myles, Sandra Cisneros, Elizabeth Alexander, and many others. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic , and dozens of other publications.
216 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 24, 2023
13 people are currently reading
1751 people want to read
About the author
Richard Blanco
66 books231 followersRichard Blanco was born in Madrid in 1968, immigrating as an infant with his Cuban-exile family to the U.S. He was raised and educated in Miami, earning a B.S. in civil engineering and a M.F.A. in creative writing from Florida International University.
In 2013, Blanco was chosen to serve as the fifth inaugural poet of the United States, following in the footsteps as such great writers as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. Blanco performed One Today, an original poem he wrote for the occasion, becoming the youngest, first Latino, immigrant and openly gay writer to hold the honor.
Following the inauguration, he continued connecting communities through occasional poetry. He has written and performed occasional poems for such organizations as Freedom to Marry, the Tech Awards and the Fragrance Awards. In May of 2013, Blanco wrote Boston Strong, a poem he performed at the Boston Garden Benefit Concert and at a Red Sox game at Fenway. Following his performances, he released a limited edition Boston Strong chapbook, with all proceeds going to those most affected by the Boston Marathon bombings.
His books, in order of publication, are: City of a Hundred Fires (1998), Directions to the Beach of the Dead (2005), Looking for the Gulf Motel (2012), One Today (2013), Boston Strong (2013), and For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey (2013).
Blanco has received numerous honors for his writings and performances, including an honorary doctorate from Macalester College and being named a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. His first book, City of a Hundred Fires received the prestigious Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize. His second book, Directions to the Beach of the Dead won the PEN / American Beyond Margins Award. His third book, Looking for The Gulf Motel received various accolades, including the Tom Gunn Award, the Maine Literary Award and the Paterson Prize. His poems have appeared in countless literary journals and anthologies, including Best American Prose Poems and Ploughshares.
Blanco has been a practicing engineer, writer and poet since 1991. He has traveled extensively in his adult life, living and working throughout Europe and South America. He has taught at Georgetown University, American University, Writer’s Center and Central Connecticut State University. Blanco currently lives and writes in the tranquil mountains of Bethel, Maine.
In 2013, Blanco was chosen to serve as the fifth inaugural poet of the United States, following in the footsteps as such great writers as Robert Frost and Maya Angelou. Blanco performed One Today, an original poem he wrote for the occasion, becoming the youngest, first Latino, immigrant and openly gay writer to hold the honor.
Following the inauguration, he continued connecting communities through occasional poetry. He has written and performed occasional poems for such organizations as Freedom to Marry, the Tech Awards and the Fragrance Awards. In May of 2013, Blanco wrote Boston Strong, a poem he performed at the Boston Garden Benefit Concert and at a Red Sox game at Fenway. Following his performances, he released a limited edition Boston Strong chapbook, with all proceeds going to those most affected by the Boston Marathon bombings.
His books, in order of publication, are: City of a Hundred Fires (1998), Directions to the Beach of the Dead (2005), Looking for the Gulf Motel (2012), One Today (2013), Boston Strong (2013), and For All of Us, One Today: An Inaugural Poet’s Journey (2013).
Blanco has received numerous honors for his writings and performances, including an honorary doctorate from Macalester College and being named a Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow. His first book, City of a Hundred Fires received the prestigious Agnes Starrett Poetry Prize. His second book, Directions to the Beach of the Dead won the PEN / American Beyond Margins Award. His third book, Looking for The Gulf Motel received various accolades, including the Tom Gunn Award, the Maine Literary Award and the Paterson Prize. His poems have appeared in countless literary journals and anthologies, including Best American Prose Poems and Ploughshares.
Blanco has been a practicing engineer, writer and poet since 1991. He has traveled extensively in his adult life, living and working throughout Europe and South America. He has taught at Georgetown University, American University, Writer’s Center and Central Connecticut State University. Blanco currently lives and writes in the tranquil mountains of Bethel, Maine.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 28, 2024
A lot of the poems are about art or inspiration from art. Some repetition and redundancy. The self introspection ones were the best.
January 28, 2024
Poems so good I wrote a poem while reading. Don’t ask me to read my poem the answer is no.
Favorites: Upon a Time: Surfside, Miami, Time as Art in the Eternal City, Where it Begins — Where it Ends, Looking for the Gulf Motel, El Florida Room, Imaginary Exile, Uncertain-Sea Principle, Hineni, Self to Self, Moonrise
Favorites: Upon a Time: Surfside, Miami, Time as Art in the Eternal City, Where it Begins — Where it Ends, Looking for the Gulf Motel, El Florida Room, Imaginary Exile, Uncertain-Sea Principle, Hineni, Self to Self, Moonrise
August 8, 2024
Profoundly moving, particularly the new poems.
February 2, 2025
Redundant after a while - country this, palm tree that, homophobic grandmother yadda yadda - but damn if every poem ain’t still exquisite.
May 23, 2024
Five-star fabulous! In this collection of more than 100 poems culled from his prodigious body of work, Blanco represents the evolution of a poet grappling with his identity and searching to find his place in the world as a gay, foreign-born (Madrid), Cuban American. These poems range in form and style, exploring various settings and themes, with a resonant voice and clarity of vision that helps us all find our place in the family of things.
Favorite Poems:
From-Radiant Beings: New Poems, Part 1
“playing god”
“Why I Needed To”
“Until This: An Ekphrastic Ars Poetica”
“Questioning Villa Vizcaya Museum and Gardens”
“Radiant Beings: Photos of Joyce Tenneson”
“To the Artist of the Invisible”
“Big Wood River”
“What You Didn’t Let Us Lose”
“Visiting Elizabeth: A Glosa”
“What Governs Us”
From-City of a Hundred Fires
“Mango, Number 61”
“Shaving”
“Mother Picking Produce”
“324 Mendoza Avenue, #6”
“Havanasis”
“El Cucubano”
From-Directions to the Beach of the Dead
“A Poet in Venice”
“Torsos at the Louvre”
“Bargaining with a Goddess”
“Papa’s Bridge”
“What’s Love Got to Do?”
“Visiting Metaphors at South Point”
“The Perfect City Code”
“When I Was a Little Cuban Boy”
“How Cam You Love New York?”
“Crossing Boston Harbor”
From-Looking for The Gulf Motel
“Looking for The Gulf Motel”
“El Florida Room”
“Afternoons as Endora”
“Maybe”
“Cooking with Mama in Maine”
“My Father in My Hands”
From-How to Love a Country
“Complaint of El Rio Grande”
“Leaving in the Rain: Limerick, Ireland”
“Island Body”
“Mother Country”
“My Father in English”
“American Wandersong”
“Let’s Remake America Great”
“Until We Could”
“Between [Another Door]”
“One Pulse—One Poem”
“America the Beautiful, Again”
“What I Know of Country”
“And So We All Fall Down”
“Declaration of Inter-Dependence”
“Cloud Anthem”
From-New Poems, Part 2
“Hineni” [fabulous!]
“Weather of My Weathering”
“Thank You for Not Letting Me Die”
“Bluejay Dialogue: An Ovillejo
“The Cutting”
“Writing Home”
“Reverse Bucket List”
“Time Capsule”
“Living Will”
“Self to Self”
“A Good Day to Die”
“Say This Isn’t the End”
Favorite Poems:
From-Radiant Beings: New Poems, Part 1
“playing god”
“Why I Needed To”
“Until This: An Ekphrastic Ars Poetica”
“Questioning Villa Vizcaya Museum and Gardens”
“Radiant Beings: Photos of Joyce Tenneson”
“To the Artist of the Invisible”
“Big Wood River”
“What You Didn’t Let Us Lose”
“Visiting Elizabeth: A Glosa”
“What Governs Us”
From-City of a Hundred Fires
“Mango, Number 61”
“Shaving”
“Mother Picking Produce”
“324 Mendoza Avenue, #6”
“Havanasis”
“El Cucubano”
From-Directions to the Beach of the Dead
“A Poet in Venice”
“Torsos at the Louvre”
“Bargaining with a Goddess”
“Papa’s Bridge”
“What’s Love Got to Do?”
“Visiting Metaphors at South Point”
“The Perfect City Code”
“When I Was a Little Cuban Boy”
“How Cam You Love New York?”
“Crossing Boston Harbor”
From-Looking for The Gulf Motel
“Looking for The Gulf Motel”
“El Florida Room”
“Afternoons as Endora”
“Maybe”
“Cooking with Mama in Maine”
“My Father in My Hands”
From-How to Love a Country
“Complaint of El Rio Grande”
“Leaving in the Rain: Limerick, Ireland”
“Island Body”
“Mother Country”
“My Father in English”
“American Wandersong”
“Let’s Remake America Great”
“Until We Could”
“Between [Another Door]”
“One Pulse—One Poem”
“America the Beautiful, Again”
“What I Know of Country”
“And So We All Fall Down”
“Declaration of Inter-Dependence”
“Cloud Anthem”
From-New Poems, Part 2
“Hineni” [fabulous!]
“Weather of My Weathering”
“Thank You for Not Letting Me Die”
“Bluejay Dialogue: An Ovillejo
“The Cutting”
“Writing Home”
“Reverse Bucket List”
“Time Capsule”
“Living Will”
“Self to Self”
“A Good Day to Die”
“Say This Isn’t the End”
June 15, 2025
My Dad is a purist when it comes to poetry. Despite occasionally reading aloud Ogden Nash's "Thunder Over The Nursery", he's very much a Yeats, Tennyson, Shelley kind of guy. If it isn't Dickinson or Poe, he probably won't indulge. He likes the classics - poems that rhyme, poems that follow strict rules of form and meter, poems that are hailed as classics and you were probably forced to memorize them at some point in your public K-12 American education. I grew up immersed in poetry because of him, forced to recite Joyce Kilmer's "Trees" until I had it down pat, forced to hear poems before bed and at camping trips around the fire...and I loved it. I never thought it was weird, even when I realized no one else's Dad made them read poetry so often. I thought it was a unique and meaningful way to connect with and make sense of the beauty - and darkness - that you encounter each day. My Dad may be a hardcore purist, but I love modern poetry, the more inventive and strange, the better. Gimme e.e. cummings, Madhubuti, Lawrence Raab, Raymond Carver, Rilke any day of the week.
I encountered Richard Blanco's work while researching laureates and inaugural poetry for my upcoming AP Lit course. I wanted to compile a hefty and diverse compendium that my students would find accessible. I was drawn to Blanco's gorgeous imagery and frank, confessional writing, especially about my home state of Florida.
That said...I showed Dad this book today, since I'm just so enchanted with it, and he was blown away! I started with my favorite - "Looking For the Gulf Motel". My Dad, having grown up in Venice which is a stone's throw from Marco Island, instantly understood Blanco's feelings of disbelief and pain when confronted with the lightning-quick development of condos that eradicate memories. Next, he read "El Florida Room", and he kept marveling at Blanco's imagery, the lipstick of the hibiscus, etc. Finally, in honor of Father's Day tomorrow, I had him read "My Father, My Hands", and he choked up. He said to me, "Sash, I'm not much of a modern poetry guy...but this man is incredibly talented." Then he asked to borrow the book when I'm finished with it! That's the best ringing endorsement I can offer.
These are the best poems from Blanco's previous collections, and they've been carefully curated like a "Greatest Hits" album of a beloved band. All ages, all genders, all races, all creeds, would find something to savor here. His writing is so raw and powerful, and his vivid descriptions are so tangible and just work.
Richard Blanco is like if a star fell to Earth and was given a pen and started dishing out about all the tea it saw from above, but not in a condemning way. In a magical, ethereal, candid, and sometimes resigned way. Ugh. I just want to treat him to a cafe con leche and ask him all about resilience and silver linings.
I encountered Richard Blanco's work while researching laureates and inaugural poetry for my upcoming AP Lit course. I wanted to compile a hefty and diverse compendium that my students would find accessible. I was drawn to Blanco's gorgeous imagery and frank, confessional writing, especially about my home state of Florida.
That said...I showed Dad this book today, since I'm just so enchanted with it, and he was blown away! I started with my favorite - "Looking For the Gulf Motel". My Dad, having grown up in Venice which is a stone's throw from Marco Island, instantly understood Blanco's feelings of disbelief and pain when confronted with the lightning-quick development of condos that eradicate memories. Next, he read "El Florida Room", and he kept marveling at Blanco's imagery, the lipstick of the hibiscus, etc. Finally, in honor of Father's Day tomorrow, I had him read "My Father, My Hands", and he choked up. He said to me, "Sash, I'm not much of a modern poetry guy...but this man is incredibly talented." Then he asked to borrow the book when I'm finished with it! That's the best ringing endorsement I can offer.
These are the best poems from Blanco's previous collections, and they've been carefully curated like a "Greatest Hits" album of a beloved band. All ages, all genders, all races, all creeds, would find something to savor here. His writing is so raw and powerful, and his vivid descriptions are so tangible and just work.
Richard Blanco is like if a star fell to Earth and was given a pen and started dishing out about all the tea it saw from above, but not in a condemning way. In a magical, ethereal, candid, and sometimes resigned way. Ugh. I just want to treat him to a cafe con leche and ask him all about resilience and silver linings.
July 16, 2024
"In this collection of over 100 poems, Richard Blanco has carefully selected poems from his previous books that represent his evolution as a writer grappling with his identity, working to find and define “home,” and bookended them with new poems that address those issues from a fresh, more mature perspective, allowing him to approach surrendering the pain and urgency of his past explorations."
I've had the pleasure of hearing Richard Blanco recite his poetry twice. His writing and style transport me to a place where I only hear his voice and see images evoked by his words.
This fantastic book of poetry is divided into several sections. In the first four to five sections, each poem, really each line, tells a story. If I had to pick a favorite I could not for fear of leaving another gem behind. I'm glad I have a hard-covered copy of this book since it will be on my shelf for a very long time.
I've had the pleasure of hearing Richard Blanco recite his poetry twice. His writing and style transport me to a place where I only hear his voice and see images evoked by his words.
This fantastic book of poetry is divided into several sections. In the first four to five sections, each poem, really each line, tells a story. If I had to pick a favorite I could not for fear of leaving another gem behind. I'm glad I have a hard-covered copy of this book since it will be on my shelf for a very long time.
June 27, 2024
A collection of new and selected poems by Richard Blanco which focus on identity, home, and the body.
from Music in Our Hands: "Melodies heard are sweet, just as I heard them / in the rhythm of Keats, who thought unheard / melodies were sweeter. And so they are here, in / the silences of this musician's still hands, as if / clenched in prayer, ecstasy, or forgiveness that / his fingers, solid as pillars, can't yet release into / music, not yet strumming a guitar whispering / stars across my ears, or pounding piano keys / into my heart, not yet blowing sax smoke for / my soul, or stroking a bow across a violin like / a lover resting on his shoulder as if on mine."
from Somewhere to Paris: "If I don't know / where I am, then I am only these heartbeats, / my breaths, the mountains rising and falling / like a wave scrolling across the train's window."
from Music in Our Hands: "Melodies heard are sweet, just as I heard them / in the rhythm of Keats, who thought unheard / melodies were sweeter. And so they are here, in / the silences of this musician's still hands, as if / clenched in prayer, ecstasy, or forgiveness that / his fingers, solid as pillars, can't yet release into / music, not yet strumming a guitar whispering / stars across my ears, or pounding piano keys / into my heart, not yet blowing sax smoke for / my soul, or stroking a bow across a violin like / a lover resting on his shoulder as if on mine."
from Somewhere to Paris: "If I don't know / where I am, then I am only these heartbeats, / my breaths, the mountains rising and falling / like a wave scrolling across the train's window."
August 12, 2024
He pulled me in every direction with this one. I get caught up with the classics, so I tend to neglect contemporary poetry, but this was special, man. Nothing but awe and admiration for this fellow Cuban, Miamian, FIU alum, teacher, and poet. A masterclass in form, in weaving an image, but moreover, he's inspired me to really connect with myself, with all of my selves, with the memories of my roots and branches. It's a hard thing to sit with oneself, to dive deeper and deeper, but poetry gives us this—an invitation to be honest, to remember, to see, to give ourselves to ourselves and to each other, to need this, us. Thank you for giving us these giving pages. Much love✊🏼
November 6, 2023
A collection of new poems and older ones, I can see why President Joe Biden awarded Rickard Blanco the National Humanities Medal. Poems from the perspective of a Cuban American, trying to find what home is, at the same time relatable to most people on that search.
November 2, 2024
Some pleasant bits, but the best pieces were lines from others:
"You need a village, if only for the pleasure of leaving it."
"You need a village, if only for the pleasure of leaving it."
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews