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A Geography That Does Not Hurt Us
A Geography That Does Not Hurt Us offers odes and elegies, prayers and whispers and shouts that speak to and from the poet’s identity as the daughter of immigrants. Carla Sofia Ferreira asks us to consider impossible but essential questions: What does it mean to be a tree growing in a polluted but still beautiful city? In the face of all that would cause harm, whether inhumane immigration laws or the cruelty of climate change, how do we create a world that will not hurt us? These are poems for immigrant daughters, poems for Newark and Portugal, poems for anyone who has felt grief or distance or loss — across time zones, across geographies.
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Paperback
Published January 23, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
February 20, 2024
It’s relatively rare in poetry to talk about pacing, and yet, the pacing & narrative threads in this excellent collection stood out to me. Ferreira’s mixing of seriousness and levity, of expertly crafted formal (inasmuch as they took on named forms) poems with free verse, and of abstraction with memoir and research, gave me just enough time to read deep and then catch my breath. There is also a beautiful circulatory nature to this text: themes, motifs, and words repeat in seasonlike cycles; within poems, repetition beats like a heart against the developing stories and layered observations of place, narrative, and history. While not every poem was a knockout, the smart placement of poems of differing lengths, styles, and intentions made this a strong collection.
I’m grateful to have met the author of this collection at AWP, where I learned of this book’s existence. A Geography that Does Not Hurt Us is a great achievement, and I’m excited to read more of Ferreira’s work.
I’m grateful to have met the author of this collection at AWP, where I learned of this book’s existence. A Geography that Does Not Hurt Us is a great achievement, and I’m excited to read more of Ferreira’s work.
February 14, 2024
Began reading Carla’s debut collection on the plane home from AWP and just finished during my lunch break. What a delight to sit with her work for a few days in Carla’s “house of memory.”
This is a collection of intimacies, “strings connected by inevitable distances”—with family, with ancestors, with the self, with terrain, with history. It is a collection obsessed with both closeness and distance, ranging from poems about interpersonal community and the need for direct language (“I need you to know none of this is metaphor”) to cosmic loneliness (“When we say constellations, aren’t we only talking of distances between already dimming lights?”
Some of my favorite poems include “Elegy for Water,” “Poem in which I Can Say Polka Dots, Tenderness, Icicles, Without Translation,” “In This Poem, Bert and Ernie are Gay,” “Today, My Students Tell Me,” “My Father Teaches to Open Pinecones,” and “Ode to the Empandas on Pacific & Elm, with Apologies to William Carlos Williams.”
“A Geography That Does Not Hurt Us” is freshly out from River River Books, where you can order your copy.
This is a collection of intimacies, “strings connected by inevitable distances”—with family, with ancestors, with the self, with terrain, with history. It is a collection obsessed with both closeness and distance, ranging from poems about interpersonal community and the need for direct language (“I need you to know none of this is metaphor”) to cosmic loneliness (“When we say constellations, aren’t we only talking of distances between already dimming lights?”
Some of my favorite poems include “Elegy for Water,” “Poem in which I Can Say Polka Dots, Tenderness, Icicles, Without Translation,” “In This Poem, Bert and Ernie are Gay,” “Today, My Students Tell Me,” “My Father Teaches to Open Pinecones,” and “Ode to the Empandas on Pacific & Elm, with Apologies to William Carlos Williams.”
“A Geography That Does Not Hurt Us” is freshly out from River River Books, where you can order your copy.
March 3, 2024
This is such a beautiful collection, so loving, and tender! I love how the poet narrates her departures, coordinates, arrivals, and her compass (the collection's four parts each of which is prefaced by a brilliantly chosen epigraph to boot) to create a personal geography that doesn't only not hurt but nurtures. These are poems of great lyricism.
March 18, 2024
I was so excited when I was able to get a copy of "A Geography That Does Not Hurt Us" by Carla Sofia Ferreira. A fan of her poetry from a previous chapbook, "Ironbound Fados," the idea of getting a full collection filled me with a delightful anticipation.
This book did not disappoint.
At times a cool breeze across the surface of still water, at other times a tumult of emotions ranging from grief to anger to acceptance, Ferreira does not disappoint. With an expert brush she paints intricate imagery, filling pages with so much of herself that it overflows, pouring from the page into the reader.
A few favorite poems were...
💙 "Elegy with Azeite e Pão de Ló"
💙 "Ransom Note Found Inside a Passport" (I absolutely cried reading this poem. It was beautiful.)
💙 "Saudade as Last Days in Tennessee"
...but in truth, they were all lovely and drew me in to a point where, when finished, I had to sit with the swirl of emotion that this collection left me in.
Pick up a copy of this collection of poetry yourself. I promise you that it's well worth it, and afterwards you'll be singing Ferreira's praises as well.
This book did not disappoint.
At times a cool breeze across the surface of still water, at other times a tumult of emotions ranging from grief to anger to acceptance, Ferreira does not disappoint. With an expert brush she paints intricate imagery, filling pages with so much of herself that it overflows, pouring from the page into the reader.
A few favorite poems were...
💙 "Elegy with Azeite e Pão de Ló"
💙 "Ransom Note Found Inside a Passport" (I absolutely cried reading this poem. It was beautiful.)
💙 "Saudade as Last Days in Tennessee"
...but in truth, they were all lovely and drew me in to a point where, when finished, I had to sit with the swirl of emotion that this collection left me in.
Pick up a copy of this collection of poetry yourself. I promise you that it's well worth it, and afterwards you'll be singing Ferreira's praises as well.
September 17, 2025
A collection of poems about love, language, family, and the places we call home.
from Tryst/e: "...I wait for you, then look up / from the children's book of myths I am transcribing: / you arrive and begin unspooling stories / I had been storing deep in my spine. / I apologize for my words, spinning from different time / zones; you ask me, por favor, don't apologize."
from Elegy with Azeite e Pão de Ló: "As a child I lived two stories above a funeral home / and I spent my summers on the other side of the Atlantic / Ocean and I need you to know that none of this is a metaphor."
from Today, My Students Tell Me: "...what I don't tell my students is that I / am so bad at taking care of anything, including myself, I don't tell them / that their words, their kindness unprovoked by anything— / like when a student told me I smelled like waffles and they wanted / me to know this was a compliment—this tenderness, even just this shared / nodding of heads, that it takes care of me every day, that it keeps me like a garden."
from Tryst/e: "...I wait for you, then look up / from the children's book of myths I am transcribing: / you arrive and begin unspooling stories / I had been storing deep in my spine. / I apologize for my words, spinning from different time / zones; you ask me, por favor, don't apologize."
from Elegy with Azeite e Pão de Ló: "As a child I lived two stories above a funeral home / and I spent my summers on the other side of the Atlantic / Ocean and I need you to know that none of this is a metaphor."
from Today, My Students Tell Me: "...what I don't tell my students is that I / am so bad at taking care of anything, including myself, I don't tell them / that their words, their kindness unprovoked by anything— / like when a student told me I smelled like waffles and they wanted / me to know this was a compliment—this tenderness, even just this shared / nodding of heads, that it takes care of me every day, that it keeps me like a garden."
August 5, 2025
“A Geography That Does Not Hurt Us” by Carla Sofia Ferreira, from Newark, NJ (River River Books, 2024). This beautiful collection is filled with odes and elegies, longing and love. The poems move—across the page, and across locations, exploring lineage and migrations. Places are remembered and marked by far more than geography; they are located through the seasons, through family and home, and above all, through love.
July 7, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed this book of poems. Tender is a word I kept noticing, and the poems are indeed something tender, care-filled, and brimming with an awe of life and sorrow at its loss. I'm glad I picked it up; it was a good reminder of what I love about poetry.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews