Vanishing Points: Poems and Photographs of Texas Roadside Memorials

by Sarah Cortez

Along Texas roadways rest thousands of contemplative shrines, usually marked by small, white metal crosses. Anchored by the stunning photography of roadside memorials by Dan Streck, this landmark book allows four poets to respond to the visual summons of roadside memorials with lyric intensity and eloquent Larry D. Thomas, Jack B. Bedell, Sarah Cortez, and Loueva Smith. Graphic designer Nancy J. Parsons brings her award-winning skills to perfectly meld photography with poetry in this gorgeous volume.

A Plain, White Cross

It lists slightly
beside the highway.
Whoever placed it there
drove its upright

deep into the earth,
intimate with the tragedy
of wind and driving rain.
Knowing the certainty

of erasure, they left it
nameless, just a simple
wooden cross harboring,
for a while, the traces

of unbearable loss.
As if lit from within
with white light, it glows
beside the silent

white light stark
as the grief of the bereaved,
white as the clouds above,
streaking, disintegrating.

                Larry D. Thomas

160 pages, Paperback

Published September 30, 2016

About the author

SARAH CORTEZ, resident of Houston and member of the Texas Institute of Letters, is the author of two poetry collections and winner of the PEN Texas literary award in poetry. Her mixed-genre memoir, Walking Home: Growing up Hispanic in Houston, was published by Texas Review Press in 2012. She has edited six anthologies, ranging from crime fiction to memoir to poetry.

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Reviews

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Need to buy this. So good for those who love imagining the stories behind all those lonely roadside crosses.