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Guillotine: Poems
The astonishing second collection by the author of Slow Lightning, winner of the Yale Younger Poets Prize
Guillotine traverses desert landscapes cut through by migrants, the grief of loss, betrayal’s lingering scars, the border itself—great distances in which violence and yearning find roots. Through the voices of undocumented immigrants, border patrol agents, and scorned lovers, award-winning poet Eduardo C. Corral writes dramatic portraits of contradiction, survival, and a deeply human, relentless interiority. With extraordinary lyric imagination, these poems wonder about being unwanted or renounced. What do we do with unrequited love? Is it with or without it that we would waste away?
In the sequence “Testaments Scratched into Water Station Barrels,” with Corral’s seamless integration of Spanish and English, poems curve around the surfaces upon which they are written, overlapping like graffiti left by those who may or may not have survived crossing the border. A harrowing second collection, Guillotine solidifies Corral’s place in the expanding ecosystem of American poetry.
Guillotine traverses desert landscapes cut through by migrants, the grief of loss, betrayal’s lingering scars, the border itself—great distances in which violence and yearning find roots. Through the voices of undocumented immigrants, border patrol agents, and scorned lovers, award-winning poet Eduardo C. Corral writes dramatic portraits of contradiction, survival, and a deeply human, relentless interiority. With extraordinary lyric imagination, these poems wonder about being unwanted or renounced. What do we do with unrequited love? Is it with or without it that we would waste away?
In the sequence “Testaments Scratched into Water Station Barrels,” with Corral’s seamless integration of Spanish and English, poems curve around the surfaces upon which they are written, overlapping like graffiti left by those who may or may not have survived crossing the border. A harrowing second collection, Guillotine solidifies Corral’s place in the expanding ecosystem of American poetry.
72 pages, Paperback
First published August 4, 2020
16 people are currently reading
3058 people want to read
About the author
Eduardo C. Corral
4 books96 followersEduardo C. Corral is an American poet and MFA Assistant Professor in the Department of English at NC State University.
He is a CantoMundo fellow. He holds degrees from Arizona State University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His poems have appeared in Best American Poetry 2012, Beloit Poetry Journal, Huizache, Jubilat, New England Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, and Quarterly West.
His work has been honored with a "Discovery"/The Nation Award, the J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize from Poetry, and writing residencies to the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo.
He has served as the Olive B. O'Connor Fellow in Creative Writing at Colgate University and as the Philip Roth Resident in Creative Writing at Bucknell University.
Slow Lightning, his first book of poems, was selected by Carl Phillips as the 2011 winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. His 2020 work, guillotine, was awarded the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for gay poetry and was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry.
He is a CantoMundo fellow. He holds degrees from Arizona State University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop. His poems have appeared in Best American Poetry 2012, Beloit Poetry Journal, Huizache, Jubilat, New England Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, Poetry Northwest, and Quarterly West.
His work has been honored with a "Discovery"/The Nation Award, the J. Howard and Barbara M. J. Wood Prize from Poetry, and writing residencies to the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo.
He has served as the Olive B. O'Connor Fellow in Creative Writing at Colgate University and as the Philip Roth Resident in Creative Writing at Bucknell University.
Slow Lightning, his first book of poems, was selected by Carl Phillips as the 2011 winner of the Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. His 2020 work, guillotine, was awarded the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for gay poetry and was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 146 reviews
April 3, 2020
Really tight collection of poems. There is a real beauty to these poems about bodies and borders, how they collide.
November 11, 2020
This poetry collection deals with the experience of immigrants from Central America to the US. It is both brutal and touching.
September 21, 2020
If you know *just enough* Spanish these poems will be a pleasure to read. I'm pleased they are on the National Book Award longlist. I've loved both collections by this poet so far.
October 6, 2023
I had the pleasure of attending a poetry reading with this author tonight. Enjoyed it immensely. Very lovely and moving collection.
August 8, 2025
Sealey Challenge 2025: 3/31
This collection was my introduction to Corral's work, although I know his earlier and more surrealist collection has received much acclaim. This collection feels more grounded and narrative-focused; less dreamlike, more raw which is usually my preference!
Corral’s use of unconventional forms and fragmented structures caught me off guard at first. Some pieces felt elusive or difficult to pin down, but as I kept reading, the formal choices began to make more sense. They reflect the instability that runs through the collection—the instability of love, identity, desire, and place. Many of the poems dive into dark emotional territory, where themes like rejection, violence, and longing swirl together. It’s uncomfortable at times, but it’s also deeply human.
What stayed with me most was the way Corral writes about border crossing. Not just in the literal, geographical sense — though that’s here too — but in all the ways people cross between worlds: between languages, identities, relationships, life and death. The collection doesn’t offer a single guiding voice. Instead, it gives space to many experiences and that multiplicity felt powerful to me. It created a kind of emotional and cultural chorus rather than a straightforward narrative.
That said, there were moments I found hard to connect with. For example, some poems that felt more shocking than moving, or imagery that lingered in a way I wasn’t sure was intentional. But even then, I appreciated the risk Corral was taking. He’s not writing to comfort. He’s writing to confront, to unsettle, to give voice to experiences that often get overlooked.
Overall, Guillotine left a strong impression. It’s not an easy read, but it’s one I’m glad I stuck with. It challenged me and made me think about form, feeling, and what poetry can do when it doesn’t hold back.
This collection was my introduction to Corral's work, although I know his earlier and more surrealist collection has received much acclaim. This collection feels more grounded and narrative-focused; less dreamlike, more raw which is usually my preference!
Corral’s use of unconventional forms and fragmented structures caught me off guard at first. Some pieces felt elusive or difficult to pin down, but as I kept reading, the formal choices began to make more sense. They reflect the instability that runs through the collection—the instability of love, identity, desire, and place. Many of the poems dive into dark emotional territory, where themes like rejection, violence, and longing swirl together. It’s uncomfortable at times, but it’s also deeply human.
What stayed with me most was the way Corral writes about border crossing. Not just in the literal, geographical sense — though that’s here too — but in all the ways people cross between worlds: between languages, identities, relationships, life and death. The collection doesn’t offer a single guiding voice. Instead, it gives space to many experiences and that multiplicity felt powerful to me. It created a kind of emotional and cultural chorus rather than a straightforward narrative.
That said, there were moments I found hard to connect with. For example, some poems that felt more shocking than moving, or imagery that lingered in a way I wasn’t sure was intentional. But even then, I appreciated the risk Corral was taking. He’s not writing to comfort. He’s writing to confront, to unsettle, to give voice to experiences that often get overlooked.
Overall, Guillotine left a strong impression. It’s not an easy read, but it’s one I’m glad I stuck with. It challenged me and made me think about form, feeling, and what poetry can do when it doesn’t hold back.
February 28, 2024
i said “hmm i wish i had something to read.” the person i was with, having just come from a poetry class, said “oh boy do i have something for you!” and handed this to me, so naturally i powered through it, desperate for entertainment. my ravenous nature was only fitting for the circumstances, as this collection of poems is extremely tight and well done. the poems themselves are intense with their pacing and rhythm, both as a body and as an individual piece. was truly impressed with its brevity and emotion, even though the collection was of a small amount.
August 12, 2020
I read this collection in a day because I've been anticipating it for so long & my excitement got the best of me. I need to go back and reread this in the near future just to make sure I take it all in, but still, all I can say is: wow, wow, wow.
December 18, 2020
One of those books of poems that you can't stop reading as soon as you begin. Am a huge fan of Corral's work in general and this book had such heart and guts. Deeply physical, even painful at times, excellent throughout. Guillotine taught me a lot about how to structure a full-length collection and every poem is a knockout.
September 30, 2020
Let me get this out of the way: I only gave this four stars because I just wish that, 7 years after Slow Lightning, there were more poems from Corral. Which maybe is kind of hypocritical of me, because I often think that poetry collections over 75 pages are a bit bloated. HOWEVER, in my own defense, this book's pagination starts on p. 7, one poem takes up ~30 pages, there are empty pages between sections, several pages only have one or three lines on them, and the final poem ends on p. 74. So, I think that my hypocrisy about book lengths is mitigated a bit. It's a 5-star book if you give me 3 or 4 more poems, Eduardo!
This collection struck me as quite different in tone and material from Slow Lightning. The surreal images and jumps that appeared repeatedly throughout Corral's first book are largely absent from this one. There are some notable exceptions, such as the titular poem and Black Water. So, if you were hoping for more 21st-century surrealism, you'll be disappointed. If you can manage to overcome that disappointment, or if you weren't solely invested in that particular aspect of Corral's work, then you will be rewarded by reading Guillotine.
Taking the place of surrealism are many more poems about (the absence of) love and lust, which are much more oriented around narrative (Ceremonial, Sentence, Autobiography of my Hungers, etc.). These go to some really dark places: "Desire with no future, / bitter longing-- / I starve myself by yearning / for intimacy that doesn't / & won't exist" (Autobiography of my Hungers pp. 43-44). There is a thread of force and violence underlying the action of these poems, perhaps alluding to the twin swords of desertion and condemnation that constantly loom over the speaker's head. "I don't touch mirrors. It's wrong, / my father always said, / to touch a man" (Córdoba p. 45).
In other poems, such as 1707 San Joaquin Avenue and Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel, Corral dives into the polyphonic and violent world of border crossing. There is not just a singular narrative voice that guides us through; instead, the same ground by the barrel has been sat on by men and women, the dead and the living, Spanish and English speakers. The poems don't dissolve into gibberish though--Corral manages to balance a multitude of voices, perhaps anchored by the water barrel's constant presence. I feel like an audio recording of Testaments Scratched would be really, really powerful. That long piece ends defiantly, bloodied but unbowed.
I hope we don't have to wait 7 more years for 60 more pages of Corral's poems but, if that's the price for work like this, I'll wait if I must.
This collection struck me as quite different in tone and material from Slow Lightning. The surreal images and jumps that appeared repeatedly throughout Corral's first book are largely absent from this one. There are some notable exceptions, such as the titular poem and Black Water. So, if you were hoping for more 21st-century surrealism, you'll be disappointed. If you can manage to overcome that disappointment, or if you weren't solely invested in that particular aspect of Corral's work, then you will be rewarded by reading Guillotine.
Taking the place of surrealism are many more poems about (the absence of) love and lust, which are much more oriented around narrative (Ceremonial, Sentence, Autobiography of my Hungers, etc.). These go to some really dark places: "Desire with no future, / bitter longing-- / I starve myself by yearning / for intimacy that doesn't / & won't exist" (Autobiography of my Hungers pp. 43-44). There is a thread of force and violence underlying the action of these poems, perhaps alluding to the twin swords of desertion and condemnation that constantly loom over the speaker's head. "I don't touch mirrors. It's wrong, / my father always said, / to touch a man" (Córdoba p. 45).
In other poems, such as 1707 San Joaquin Avenue and Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel, Corral dives into the polyphonic and violent world of border crossing. There is not just a singular narrative voice that guides us through; instead, the same ground by the barrel has been sat on by men and women, the dead and the living, Spanish and English speakers. The poems don't dissolve into gibberish though--Corral manages to balance a multitude of voices, perhaps anchored by the water barrel's constant presence. I feel like an audio recording of Testaments Scratched would be really, really powerful. That long piece ends defiantly, bloodied but unbowed.
I hope we don't have to wait 7 more years for 60 more pages of Corral's poems but, if that's the price for work like this, I'll wait if I must.
September 29, 2020
Stomp on your heart poems.
November 28, 2021
After reading a handful of these poems many many times earlier this year (especially "Around Every Circle Another Can Be Drawn"), I finally sat down and read, in one sitting this morning, Eduardo C. Corral's 2020 Lambda Award winning collection for gay poetry.
*Guillotine* centers itself on the human body, especially the queer body and the immigrant body and their intersection, so it is no surprise that I felt these poems in my chest. I have a long ongoing conversation with my own body, a trail of invisible wounds and scars, so poetry about the body usually hits me pretty hard.
Corral once described his work as a queered-immigration narrative, "moving from one country to another — you’re cut off from one country as you enter another country.” That border crossing, one of danger, of uncertainty, of peril, and of pain, includes both the geographical and emotional sting of loss and longing and loneliness.
Here are some of my favourite lines:
"Desire with no future,/bitter longing—/I starve myself by yearning/for intimacy that doesn't/& won't exist."
"strangers once// gently he hammers gold into a sentence gently//the sentence enters me."
"Some Mesoamerican elders/believed there's a fifth direction.//Not the sky or the ground/but the person right next to you.//I'm turning to face you, maestro./I'm greeting you./Tahui."
*Guillotine* centers itself on the human body, especially the queer body and the immigrant body and their intersection, so it is no surprise that I felt these poems in my chest. I have a long ongoing conversation with my own body, a trail of invisible wounds and scars, so poetry about the body usually hits me pretty hard.
Corral once described his work as a queered-immigration narrative, "moving from one country to another — you’re cut off from one country as you enter another country.” That border crossing, one of danger, of uncertainty, of peril, and of pain, includes both the geographical and emotional sting of loss and longing and loneliness.
Here are some of my favourite lines:
"Desire with no future,/bitter longing—/I starve myself by yearning/for intimacy that doesn't/& won't exist."
"strangers once// gently he hammers gold into a sentence gently//the sentence enters me."
"Some Mesoamerican elders/believed there's a fifth direction.//Not the sky or the ground/but the person right next to you.//I'm turning to face you, maestro./I'm greeting you./Tahui."
Read
August 5, 2025"once
I dressed him in burlap
once bicycles
& marbles
once I tore rain
out of a parable
to strike down
his thirst."
("Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel")
"a thunderhead
on the horizon
shimmers
half-built
cathedral
what a saint said
about God
I believe about
loneliness
a circle
whose center is
everywhere
& its circumference
nowhere"
("Around Every Circle Another Can Be Drawn")
I dressed him in burlap
once bicycles
& marbles
once I tore rain
out of a parable
to strike down
his thirst."
("Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel")
"a thunderhead
on the horizon
shimmers
half-built
cathedral
what a saint said
about God
I believe about
loneliness
a circle
whose center is
everywhere
& its circumference
nowhere"
("Around Every Circle Another Can Be Drawn")
Read
May 13, 2025The second half of the book (several short and distinct poems) worked better for me than the first (one long multi-page poem), but that's just my taste.
Pretty good. I think my favorite pieces on this read through were "Guillotine" and "To A Straight Man."
Pretty good. I think my favorite pieces on this read through were "Guillotine" and "To A Straight Man."
Read
November 17, 2024“What happened when he touched you
The world spilled out”
The world spilled out”
August 30, 2024
and he’s nice!!!
March 4, 2021
This is a collection of carefully and deliberately laid-out poems, many presented in a sort of experimental/unconventional format; this might not be everyone’s preference but it serves a purpose to the author so I am cool with it. Some of the poems are in Spanish, so keep that in mind in case you are not a native speaker. For those who are, the words will be easier to understand even though the contecxt might still be muddled (if you love to interpret poetry, this will be a good one for you!) I still haven’t dabbled much in contemporary/21st century poetry but I like to read stuff here and there. Being a first-generation Mexican American, I was particularly drawn to this title, but it can certainly be universally appreciated and understood. This read was short, somewhere around 80 pages if I recall, and it was borrowed at the library, so hopefully someone else will come across and enjoy it even more than I did!
August 9, 2020
“When you hurt, you’re not completely in the world”
.
“There’s a harmonica tattooed on my collarbone, I can feel deaths mouth on it, lips wiry & hot”
.
“I don’t touch mirrors. It’s wrong my father always said, to touch a man”
.
.
Guillotine by Eduardo C. Corral is a brutal and blunt collection of poems that delve deep into the displacement of immigrants at the borders and the displacement of queer desires. Vivid imagery and melancholy experience drives the force behind these beautiful poems that find themselves weaving like a spider in a web different voices and lives and even different languages ( both Spanish and English intermingled together) Corral’s life and words bring pain and pleasure to the reader, raw and unflinching these poems tell more than just a story, they tell of love and loss, of struggle and pain, of the most beautiful and the most hideous of human capabilities. The section titled “Testaments scratched into a water station barrel” and the poems “Córdoba” and “questions for my body” are huge standouts. Will be looking for this collection to be on the long and shortlist of poetry this year at the National Book Awards.
.
“There’s a harmonica tattooed on my collarbone, I can feel deaths mouth on it, lips wiry & hot”
.
“I don’t touch mirrors. It’s wrong my father always said, to touch a man”
.
.
Guillotine by Eduardo C. Corral is a brutal and blunt collection of poems that delve deep into the displacement of immigrants at the borders and the displacement of queer desires. Vivid imagery and melancholy experience drives the force behind these beautiful poems that find themselves weaving like a spider in a web different voices and lives and even different languages ( both Spanish and English intermingled together) Corral’s life and words bring pain and pleasure to the reader, raw and unflinching these poems tell more than just a story, they tell of love and loss, of struggle and pain, of the most beautiful and the most hideous of human capabilities. The section titled “Testaments scratched into a water station barrel” and the poems “Córdoba” and “questions for my body” are huge standouts. Will be looking for this collection to be on the long and shortlist of poetry this year at the National Book Awards.
September 18, 2020
Lots of experimental stylistic choices here that aren’t my cup of tea. Some of the forms were loose, titles were often foregone, line breaks were often unconventional (and distracting... why forcibly hyphenate a word to enjamb it? shock’s sake? I can’t justify it.), and the content mostly bereft of even a thin narrative thread (over the years, I’ve come to argue the defense of a narrative). The collection felt artsy, but not soulful; not what I remember of Corral’s first collection. What I thought was zinging in Slow Lightning (wholly evocative images propped on the foundation of Spanish words / sounds and the mix of high brow and low brow things) felt MIA here or, in the case of the interspersed Spanish, a lot more flat. I read to experience pleasure, to be moved, and to learn something. I wasn’t pleased or particularly moved. I don’t feel I learned much - about the world or about the poet - here. What worked:
- Saguaro. (Felt much like the poems in Slow Lightning.)
- pgs. 13 & 14 in Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel
- To Francisco X. Alarcon
- “Around Every Circle Another Can Be Drawn”
- Commercial Break
- Saguaro. (Felt much like the poems in Slow Lightning.)
- pgs. 13 & 14 in Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel
- To Francisco X. Alarcon
- “Around Every Circle Another Can Be Drawn”
- Commercial Break
November 16, 2022
11/15/22
- fave poems: ceremonial (!!), testaments scratched onto a water barrel (p. 11, 13, 16- !!!, 29), autobiography of my hungers, cordoba, black water, around every circle another can be drawn
- re-reading this after 2 years! and it sits more deeply even if the emotions don't lash out as much as they did when i was younger, which is interesting
- some books make me feel more as i get older and some make me feel less than they did before
"what a saint said about God, I believe about loneliness, a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere"
"stray tenderness, stay"
8/20/20
-sharp, violent, lots of churchy imagery, you can't help but read the book all at once despite how heavy you feel
-overflowing with a need for tenderness but also very depressive
-the focus on the body and the connection of hatred of oneself and one's body reminds me of hieu minh nyugen's work
-some of my fave poems: Ceremonial, Autobiography of My Hungers, Cordoba
- i have read so many good poems in the past 2 days i need to rest, i am full of emotions
- fave poems: ceremonial (!!), testaments scratched onto a water barrel (p. 11, 13, 16- !!!, 29), autobiography of my hungers, cordoba, black water, around every circle another can be drawn
- re-reading this after 2 years! and it sits more deeply even if the emotions don't lash out as much as they did when i was younger, which is interesting
- some books make me feel more as i get older and some make me feel less than they did before
"what a saint said about God, I believe about loneliness, a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere"
"stray tenderness, stay"
8/20/20
-sharp, violent, lots of churchy imagery, you can't help but read the book all at once despite how heavy you feel
-overflowing with a need for tenderness but also very depressive
-the focus on the body and the connection of hatred of oneself and one's body reminds me of hieu minh nyugen's work
-some of my fave poems: Ceremonial, Autobiography of My Hungers, Cordoba
- i have read so many good poems in the past 2 days i need to rest, i am full of emotions
August 7, 2020
Very strong second book by a poet who's now officially on my "read everything he writes" list. Second books are tricky--more terrific poets produce an "okay" second one than you might expect, maybe because the energy has to come from somewhere else, sometimes because they feel driven to fit the entire world into less than a hundred pages.
Corral tightens and loosens the frame at the same time. The intimate poems and deep deep images about his struggle with body size, sexuality....deeply grounded in his gay LatinX life, but touching chords that resonate far far away. The landscape poems, especially the quasi-documentary "Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel" are as good as anything yet written about the ongoing nightmare in the Sonoran desert.
The title poem goes on my list of keeper poems for the year decade century.
Corral tightens and loosens the frame at the same time. The intimate poems and deep deep images about his struggle with body size, sexuality....deeply grounded in his gay LatinX life, but touching chords that resonate far far away. The landscape poems, especially the quasi-documentary "Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel" are as good as anything yet written about the ongoing nightmare in the Sonoran desert.
The title poem goes on my list of keeper poems for the year decade century.
June 30, 2022
Corral's previous collection, Slow Lightning, rocked my entire world. It ranks among my favorite books of all time. Devastating and dark and exquisite. I am sorry that this collection paled in comparison. It is easy to sit back in critique. It is hard to write and put your soul out there. I love him and will always read his stuff. But that is my honest opinion.
August 3, 2020
American dream,
ends badly, heroically,
the struggle unremembered by time,
generations ghost post-oxygenated air,
nearest very edge of sun crucified desert.
#poem
Chris Roberts Patron Saint of Non-Contact Passes for Love Beings
ends badly, heroically,
the struggle unremembered by time,
generations ghost post-oxygenated air,
nearest very edge of sun crucified desert.
#poem
Chris Roberts Patron Saint of Non-Contact Passes for Love Beings
December 31, 2020
This book left me speechless.
June 27, 2024
This collection is brimming with emotion as it crosses borders (figuratively and literally) to consider the experiences of (im)migration, though other themes are touched on as well, ranging from politics to sexuality. I really enjoyed how Corral fluidly moved between Spanish and English throughout this collection, never once breaking the flow from one line to the next. Something else that struck me about this collection was how Corral played a fair bit with form, which I enjoyed, but it also made his poems a bit more abstract. Lastly, while I realize his long poem, “Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel,” is meant to be the centerpiece of the collection, I actually found myself enjoying his other poems more.
Overall, a meditative collection that has me interested in reading his debut collection, as well as future works. I wouldn’t say that I was floored by these poems, but I did appreciate the language and insights that Corral brought to this world.
Overall, a meditative collection that has me interested in reading his debut collection, as well as future works. I wouldn’t say that I was floored by these poems, but I did appreciate the language and insights that Corral brought to this world.
April 3, 2025
Corral leaves traces of humanity along the border. Here, he sheds the skin of a cultural self who dies and then dies again, one who lives marginally and one who suckles upon the ethereal and ephemeral to sustain himself. There are morsels of migratory life/culture snuck beneath his poetic tongue like contraband.
This collection of poems forced me, as a Latino born in the U.S., to acknowledge the privilege of citizenship. The collection provided insight into the filmy and shattered windows of that trepidatious journey.
Here, Corral’s poems are like the cactus one encounters on the journey through the unforgiving deserts; there are the sharp spines that can dig into one’s skin, the soft paddles that bear the fruit of the succulent prickly pear, and the tiny pricks embedded so finely into one's skin that it becomes almost impossible to rid yourself of all of it.
The phantasmagoric mindscape of this collection is written with the bones, flesh, teeth, and discarded objects of the forgotten and this makes for a devastatingly brilliant yet haunting piece of literature.
This collection of poems forced me, as a Latino born in the U.S., to acknowledge the privilege of citizenship. The collection provided insight into the filmy and shattered windows of that trepidatious journey.
Here, Corral’s poems are like the cactus one encounters on the journey through the unforgiving deserts; there are the sharp spines that can dig into one’s skin, the soft paddles that bear the fruit of the succulent prickly pear, and the tiny pricks embedded so finely into one's skin that it becomes almost impossible to rid yourself of all of it.
The phantasmagoric mindscape of this collection is written with the bones, flesh, teeth, and discarded objects of the forgotten and this makes for a devastatingly brilliant yet haunting piece of literature.
March 19, 2022
These poems are often discomforting, sometimes disturbing but always thick with atmosphere and a gritty Mexican desert aesthetic. The enigmatic voice of the writer is intimate yet abstruse. It's difficult to pin them down except that they clearly hate their own body and love a thick bearded man. The poems are filled with self-loathing and longing that felt raw and relatable. Corral laces the dusty, rugged landscape of the poems with the many shades of xenophobic and racist attitudes that linger pervasively in the margins of his self-doubt. It should never be underestimated that, though these hateful slurs and disgusting attitudes toward immigrants are clearly dehumanizing generalizations, they still have an effect on the individual psyche and worm their way into the author's subconscious and self-perception. The overall collection is as varied and rocky as the southwestern tundra. Some sections are stunning and scintillating while others fall a bit flat. Still, the uneven terrain of the writing always feels authentic and honest in a visceral and unvarnished way that was entrancing and evocative to the last page.
August 6, 2021
Day 6 of #The SealyChallenge 2021 is Guillotine by Eduardo C. Corral published by Graywolf Press.
What a gorgeous examination of place, politics, culture, and selfhood.
Some of my Favorite moments:
Woke with some Portuguese in my head.
god is nothing more than a gecko resting on a lemon
In the dream I stumble, but I never let go of my right breast: an urn heavy with my own ashes, an urn I’m lugging God-knows-where.
If you think I look good naked wait until you see me dead
Some Mesoamerican elders believed there’s a fifth direction. Not the sky or the ground but the person right next to you.
What a gorgeous examination of place, politics, culture, and selfhood.
Some of my Favorite moments:
Woke with some Portuguese in my head.
god is nothing more than a gecko resting on a lemon
In the dream I stumble, but I never let go of my right breast: an urn heavy with my own ashes, an urn I’m lugging God-knows-where.
If you think I look good naked wait until you see me dead
Some Mesoamerican elders believed there’s a fifth direction. Not the sky or the ground but the person right next to you.
December 31, 2021
At some point, I declared 2021 as the Year of Poetry, so it is only fitting I end with this collection.
I read more poetry than I ever have this year, and this collection certainly stands out in both content and form!
I found the middle section to be particularly excellent, Cordoba and To a Straight Man among my favorites.
While I appreciated the uniqueness of the other sections, I do think I would have been able to appreciate them more if I knew Spanish 😬
Glad to have read this, and excited to read more poetry in the new year!
I read more poetry than I ever have this year, and this collection certainly stands out in both content and form!
I found the middle section to be particularly excellent, Cordoba and To a Straight Man among my favorites.
While I appreciated the uniqueness of the other sections, I do think I would have been able to appreciate them more if I knew Spanish 😬
Glad to have read this, and excited to read more poetry in the new year!
April 23, 2022
¡Aguas! / An animal / is prowling / this station. It shimmies with hunger. / It shimmers / with thirst. / To keep it away, / I hurl my memories at it. Your laughter is now / snagged / on its fangs. / Your pain / now breathes inside its lugns. Taste / the feeling. / Siempre Coca-Cola.
Despite the fact that I really liked the mix of Spanish and English as a concept, I probably would've appreciated it more if I knew more Spanish. As a non-Spanish reader, I was constantly torn between googling sentences, or just carrying on, attempting to just feel 'em.
Despite the fact that I really liked the mix of Spanish and English as a concept, I probably would've appreciated it more if I knew more Spanish. As a non-Spanish reader, I was constantly torn between googling sentences, or just carrying on, attempting to just feel 'em.
November 18, 2021
I don't even know if I can put into words how this book made me feel. I feel consumed. It pulled me in completely and entirely, even if I always didn't want to be where the speaker of a poem was.
Favorites:
- Ceremonial
- Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel
- Autobiography of My Hungers
- Córdoba
- Around Every Circle Another Can Be Drawn
"Desire with no future, bitter longing - I starve myself by yearning for intimacy that doesn't and won't exist."
Favorites:
- Ceremonial
- Testaments Scratched into a Water Station Barrel
- Autobiography of My Hungers
- Córdoba
- Around Every Circle Another Can Be Drawn
"Desire with no future, bitter longing - I starve myself by yearning for intimacy that doesn't and won't exist."
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