Garden of Exile: Poems

by Aleida Rodríguez

Aleida Rodríguez's first full-length collection of poems, Garden of Exile , was selected by Marilyn Hacker as the 1998 winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry. Garden of Exile reveals a life enriched by layers of language and culture. Rodr‚guez was born in Cuba and emigrated to the Midwest at age nine via Operation Peter Pan. These poems are psalms that celebrate the pleasures of experience made palpable through language. Rodríguez counts her bilingual lexicon as a double "Earth's language is a continuous current,/ translating the voices of my early trees along the ground./ I can't afford not to listen." In her liminal world, the lyricism of Spanish and English mingle their most gorgeous sinsontes, ciruelas, mamoncillos, meringue clouds, and the cluck of coconuts "deliver a lost dictionary of delight." Rodríguez is a remarkably deft not only is she fluent in two tongues, she articulates the delicate nuances of daily life. Whether speaking of water, flora, or women in love, she refuses to produce the poof of easy lyric like a rabbit from a hat. Though they nod to heady pleasures, these poems keep their wits. Rodríguez remains self-possessed, intelligent, and interesting, even in her most impassioned moments. She reveals perception as the self's real alchemy and, by so doing, makes the world appear right before our very eyes. Garden of Exile is the fifteenth poetry title to be published by Sarabande Books, a nonprofit literary press headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. Since the 1996 debut of the press, Sarabande Books titles have received positive review attention from nationally distinguished media including The New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, American Book Review, Small Press, The Nation , and Library Journal. Aleida Rodríguez was born on a kitchen table in Havana, Cuba. Her poetry and prose have been published in many literary magazines, textbooks, and anthologies nationwide, including Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, The Kenyon Review, ZYZZYVA, Southern Poetry Review , and The Progressive , as well as In A Collection of Brief Creative Nonfiction (W.W. Norton, 1996), T

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1999

About the author

Born in Havana and brought to America at age nine, Rodríguez defies those who would pigeonhole her as “only” a writer of displacement and political strife, and asks readers, “Who says that whining or raging is more legitimate than delighting or loving?”

Rodríguez has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council, has published her work in Ploughshares and The Kenyon Review, and currently lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Sarabande Books · Rating 5 out of 5]

Winner of the 1998 Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry, Selected by Marilyn Hacker

Winner of the 1998 Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry

Recipient of the 2000 PEN Center USA West Award in Poetry