The Eaters of Flowers

by Ire'ne Lara Silva

In The Eaters of Flowers, her third book of poems for Saddle Road Press, after the much-loved Blood Sugar Canto and Cuicacalli/House of Song, Ire'ne Lara Silva writes about the loss of her brother, her adopted son. In her unique canto style she sings the stunned, broken months following his death, navigating grief, loss, loneliness, and the remembrance of joy, as she begins to re-assemble her life.

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

Published January 15, 2024

About the author

ire’ne lara silva is the author of two chapbooks: ani’mal and INDíGENA. Her first collection of poetry, furia, was published by Mouthfeel Press in October 2010 and received an Honorable Mention for the 2011 International Latino Book Award in Poetry. Her first collection of short stories, flesh to bone, was published by Aunt Lute Press in 2013. flesh to bone received the 2013 Premio Aztlan, placed 2ND for the 2014 TEJAS NACCS FOCO Award in Fiction, and was a Finalist for ForeWard Review’s Book of the Year Award in Multicultural Fiction. flesh to bone was also selected as the May 2014 Book of the Month for the National Latino Book Club/Las Comadres.

A new digital, English-Spanish bilingual chapbook titled Enduring Azucares was published June 2015 by Sibling Rivalry Press, and Saddle Road Press recently published her second full-length collection of poetry, Blood Sugar Canto, in January 2016.

She is the 2014 Recipient of the final Alfredo Cisneros del Moral Award, the 2013 Fiction Finalist for AROHO’s Gift of Freedom, the 2008 recipient of the Gloria Anzaldua Milagro Award, a Macondo member, and a 2010 Cantomundo Inaugural Fellow. From 2004 to 2008, she was the Executive Coordinator for the Macondo Writing Workshop/Macondo Foundation. She and Moises S. L. Lara were co-coordinators for the Flor De Nopal Literary Festival (2011-2015). http://flordenopalliteraryfestival.wo...

ire’ne’s poetry, short stories and essays have appeared in more than fifty journals and anthologies, including Acentos Review, Ginosko Literary Journal, Mas Tequila Review, PilgrimageCIPACTLI, Kweli Journal, The Worcester Review, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Palabra, The Weight of Addition: Texas Poetry Anthology, Improbable Worlds Anthology, Beat Texas Poetry Anthology, Turtle Island to Abya Yala: A Love Anthology of Art and Poetry by Native American and Latina Women,and in the forthcoming New Border Voices.

ire’ne and Dan Vera are the co-editors of IMANIMAN: Poets Writing on the Anzalduan Borderlands, an anthology of essays, poetry and hybrids of the two, published by Aunt Lute Books in 2017.

via https://irenelarasilva.wordpress.com/

Reviews

[Lizet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captures the raw emotion of grief. I never imagined what grief could entail, this poem encapsulate the sensitive topic perfectly and puts the reader in the shoes of the author for almost a second.

The eater of flowers encompasses the little things you wouldnt even think of when youve lost someone. One quote that stood out and resonated with me: "do i wait or will waiting mean nothing and the memories will stab me again as sharply and i'll lose him all over again". If youre sentimental like me this book will have you crying.

Throughout the story there are quotes that I sometimes am unable to put into words but the author captures it perfectly. I always recommend this poem when asked for suggestions, its beautiful, raw, and expresses the profound journey of loss.

[Gianna Loboda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Throughout these pages, Ire’ne Lara Silva invites readers into the intimate beauty, and likewise grief, of her life. She writes honestly and beautifully about the loss of her brother. There is a rawness in the grief we see, a “crater of howling emptiness” felt throughout the pages. Yet there is a strength. Silva has survived over and over again, and she knows she will continue doing so until her time comes. She is not suppressed by her grief, but she lets it feed her writing, and feed her appreciation for life in all its imperfections.

The language is magical, and you find yourself getting pleasantly lost within the lines. Silva uses repetition over again in her poems, but never in the same way. Always artistically placed, yet it flows naturally. One could never accuse her of trying too hard to be unique in her writing—she just is. And it is what makes her poetry unlike any other I’ve read. There is a voice in every poem, a presence. Strong yet gentle, in communion with the natural flow of living and dead things. And through it all she wants us too, to learn and rest in knowing that “death is not the opposite of life / only the next part / the next world / the doorway we’ll all enter.”

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up while on a trip to San Antonio b/c it was marketed as a local author and I keep saying (to no one but myself) that I want to read more poetry...

this is the best luck I've had in a while. what a wonderful result of a whim!

Silva's use of imagery and metaphor are so evocative and poignant. the variety of form and style (stanza, paragraph, etc.) is really engaging. I found myself breathing with each poem, a unique momentum to each idea or memory. I have known grief, but something about this collection spoke to my heart beyond that; it made me contemplate the fears I carry around and ponder what exactly living is to me. I have a feeling I'll be carrying this collection around in my heart for a while...

[Lauren Oertel · Rating 5 out of 5]

the eaters of flowers submerges readers into the brutal honesty of grief, but also shows us the relentless beauty in how we save each other and ourselves, even after our loved one(s), or any of us are long gone.

Many of the poems in this collection are about making choices, especially within the lives where so little is within one’s control. The book explores the power of chosen family, and it made me think about how none of us choose to be born. But, in a million tiny moments, we can choose to live, to pause and admire, breathe in, and even consume the beauty around us. We can choose to live, over and over again, even when it feels impossible. 

This collection offers readers a lush bouquet of these moments, where the narrator continues to choose to live and love, with her full body and soul. The journey through these poems gives me hope that when I lose the ones closest to me, I can also find a path, eating flowers, grieving, and loving my way through it.

I highly recommend this book and everything else written by ire'ne lara silva (Texas State Poet Laureate).