Blood Sugar Canto

by Ire'ne Lara Silva

Blood Sugar Canto, Ire'ne Lara Silva's third book, is a powerful hymn to life and to her own body by a "curandera-poet" struggling to transmute the fear and despair of diabetes into healing.

She sings of the syringes, the paraphernalia of this new world she must live in, its losses and griefs, its pain, and her memories of those in her family who have died of this disease.

Genres: Poetry, Read For School

100 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 2016

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

[Natalia Sylvester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, raw, and bold. ire'ne's voice is fearless and powerful, sometimes vulnerable but always strong. Her words constantly take my breath away as I read them.

[Mo · Rating 5 out of 5]

“for some conversations a/ dictionary is a doorway. for others it is an obstacle.” Will never leave my brain. Absolutely beautiful and honest.

[Mia McBride · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 STARS - yes this counts towards my reading goal even though it’s a collection of poems…
read this for my literature and medicine class and learned a lot about diabetes and how it can affect people. some of these poems i liked, others were just ok or plain confusing, and some were bad in my opinion but.. i’m not a poetry expert 😃

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her latest poetry collection, Blood Sugar Canto (out in January from Saddle Road Press), ire’ne lara silva examines the human condition through a visceral, heart-breaking exploration of diabetes in her own flesh, in the lives of those she loves, in the fabric of her community itself. Like Jan Seale’s Parkinson Poems and other similar works, Blood Sugar Canto unflinchingly strips the silence and mystery away from a debilitating condition (“why is la azucar being whispered,” she asks, when “we should be screaming it”).

The poems guide us through the better part of a decade of silva’s life, from her diagnosis in 2008 to the present. We are shown how difficult it is to face and accept the disease (“song for fear,” “despair, you are invited to my table”). Voices are raised to rail against diabetes and the institutional racism that trivializes its impact (“we don’t give morphine for heartburn”) and this leads to a growing understanding of the underlying historical and social causes of what is an epidemic (“dieta indígena,” “tequilita,” “lullaby”) as well as a thankfulness for fleeting moments of compassion (“grace”).

But the bulk of silva’s verse details the impact of diabetes on her flesh, on her mind, on her soul. The poet learns suffering intimately, but she also discovers how to move beyond fear, to celebrate those she loved who fell under the ravages of the disease (as in the lovely, supremely moving “one-sided conversations with my mother”).

In the end, silva is able to face her condition with wry humor and balanced aplomb, forever altered by its presence, but able to open her aneled heart and sing, joyful and defiant and undaunted: “let my last breath be song.”

An essential and life-affirming collection by one of our greatest shaman-poets, Blood Sugar Canto will take your heart in its hands and whisper how beautiful you are.

[Iris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Made me cry and understand the power of poetry. Any aspiring health professional should read this.

[amanda abel · Rating 3 out of 5]

These poems by and large seem like they’re meant to be read aloud. I can imagine that, in a slam space, they could be quite moving. If I weren’t doing the Sealey Challenge currently and committed to reading a book of poetry everyday, however, I doubt I would have continued with this one beyond the first 15 or 20 pages. The title of the book actually gives away the subject of most of the collection which is engaging with diabetes (and hence blood sugar) in the author’s life, both her own experience and that of family. The first nearly third of the book seemed to be solely about that subject, and it wasn’t until I got further in that I found poems that didn’t feel so singular and exclusive. I also felt that the lyricism picked up as I continued and the poems seemed less dependent on repetition and conversational language and became more about the beauty of phrasing. This would certainly be a great book to gift someone struggling with a type 2 diabetes diagnosis or someone who’s lost a family member to the disease, but I doubt I’d recommend it otherwise. Still, I did find some value here.

[Kirsten D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Please bury me with this book because I am in love with it. I was deeply touched by several of the poems — most notably “diabetic love song,” “labwork,” and “the world is medicine.” Silva expresses vulnerability and gratitude so eloquently and I was enchanted by it!! I also learned a lot about diabetes. I am not diabetic but someone close to me is, and I gained a clearer insight of his experience from these poems. I finished this book in 24 hours, which might be the quickest I’ve ever read anything. I will read it many more times throughout my life and I know I will be just as touched as I was this first time. Thank you, ire’ne.

[Daniel Guarín · Rating 1 out of 5]

A waste of time. What a stupid book. I can't believe people actually think this is consider 'poetry'. Come on. I can't think about how miserable her life was of she needed diabetes in order to start enjoying her life.

[Julia · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are some very good poems in this collection - but for me there was a little too much on the same theme and they began to feel a little samey after a while.

[Carolina · Rating 4 out of 5]

"i am afraid of more losses that will call me to be stronger than i am"

[Aden · Rating 3 out of 5]

A heartbreaking, meaningful collection about the pain and historical trauma of living with diabetes. Silva is very strong for writing these poems, they are immensely impactful.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I did not expect this to be as good as it was.

[Shauna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Silva’s latest thematic collection, centered on her diagnosis as an insulin dependent diabetic, is nothing short of breathtaking. Lyrical proof that the personal is political, Blood Sugar Canto tackles the heaviest of topics: ailing health, the trauma of a long family history of diabetes, constant physical pain, the fear that comes with medical emergencies, callus medical professionals and multiple misdiagnosis, and the transformative re-negotiation of self we all must confront in the face of life-changing health information. Poems such as “ode to the syringe,” “tequilita,” and “the diabetic lover” exemplify how all aspects of life change unexpectedly when living with disease. From not knowing our last shot of tequila for the night is going to be the final shot we ever get to take to changing the choices we have for expressing our sexual desire—everything shines in a different light once a dramatic life change occurs. As illustrated by the piece “poem to frida, patron saint of art and pain,” health battles bring even our favorite artists new meaning. Poems such as “en trozos/in pieces,” “we don’t give morphine for heartburn,” and “one sided conversation with my mother” delve into the author’s sensory rich memories of family member’s health battles with obvious love, anger, and reverence. With several pieces that hold the qualities of both elegy and canto, the elegant tonal shifts, ferocious beauty, and unwavering clarity shown in the poems cannot be overstated. The fifth section entitled “let my last breath be song” ends the collection cleverly with a gathering of uplifting love songs to elements of the natural world and the human body explaining in its first poem “the world is medicine / let / it in.” A potentially powerful tool for health advocacy in Xicana and Indigenous communities, Blood Sugar Canto reminds us that curandera poets practice healing in every endeavor.

[toria · Rating 4 out of 5]

vulnerable and unique. so good.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this collection so much— I'm not super familiar with poetry generally and sometimes am intimidated. This collection reads like a memoir to me, and it's gorgeous and powerful.
The poems bring up the inequities in healthcare and colonization and erasure of indigenous practice along with her and her communities experience with diabetes.