Borders

New Poets of America

by Mary Crow

In her first collection, Crow (translator of Woman Who Has Sprouted Wings: Poems by Contemporary Latin American Women Poets) proves herself poetically accomplished and politically committed. The "borders" of the title furnish an apt metaphor: more than boundaries between countries crossed as the narrator journeys through Latin America, they also become barriers separating her from a lover and then a coupled "us" from a "them." Crow's "they" signifies political prisoners and people imprisoned by their beliefs: the crippled parishioners who toil to the tops of mountains to kiss the Christ who will "save" them; the men and women who seclude themselves on islands; even those who, like the narrator, attempt to forget themselves and their woes through travel. Such borders bless Crow with a necessary distance, allowing her the luxury of an observer's role along with the right to express outrage, as seen in her poem "The Real Thing." There she comments on a man tortured by the police because his son is a "subversive": "This is only one incident among many, / only one incident in another country. / It is not happening to you, to me." (Publishers Weekly, 1989)

Genres: Poetry

52 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1989

About the author

Mary Crow, former Colorado Poet Laureate, was raised in Loudonville, Ohio, and educated at the College of Wooster, Indiana University, and the Iowa Writers Workshop. She came west to begin a creative writing and teaching career at Colorado State University. Along with teaching Creative Writing and Contemporary Poetry, Women Writers, South American and World Poetry, Crow also served as director of CSU's Creative Writing Program.

Crow's books of poetry include Addicted to the Horizon, I Have Tasted the Apple and Borders and three chapbooks, most recently The High Cost of Living. Her poetry translations include volumes of Jorge Teillier, Roberto Juarroz, Olga Orozco, and an anthology of contemporary Latin American women poets. Among her honors are Poetry Fellowships from the NEA and the Colorado Council on the Arts as well as three Fulbrights and writers’ residencies in Israel, Spain, Czech Republic, Scotland and the U.S.

Reviews

[Christine Bissonnette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really quite enjoyed this book of poetry. The images are vivid. I loved how collections of images created a scene that after looking away from the book I suddenly realized she'd fully immersed me in.

One of my favourite poems from the collection is 'The Pyramid at Cuernavaca'. Here's an especially evocative section from that poem:
"My lava and earth
resist. I cling to your hands,
I mold them.
I ask you to hold me
in a certain way. I let you move me
and I move with your hands, but the shape
we are making is mine."

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I live on an island / and there I tend / a little heap of stones. / I keep busy / rearranging them. / […] I have wrung them / and gotten / sore hands: / They would not cry. / I have rubbed them: / They would not / catch fire.”