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Delicates
Poems from a critically acclaimed Cuban writer available in English for the first time.
Imbued with a sensuality reminiscent of the work of Anaïs Nin, Wendy Guerra’s Delicates takes readers on an exhilarating journey through the cities of love, where women leave their bodies “in the showers of men,” marking their territory “like animals in heat,” their panties “saturated with sand and a sidereal isolating odor.” Guerra’s shocking metaphors and images invite us to enter her gallery of striking and provoking poems where we witness a flight through the air from a thirty-fourth-story window and a woman’s pilgrimage to the salt flats “to taste the pink in stones” on her lover’s behalf. Guerra’s relationship with her native Cuba—much like her relationships with men—is complex and multilayered. Her work confronts the realities of a political system that doesn’t celebrate artistic freedom. Here we have a new way of looking at a woman, an artist, a country, and the colonizers of that country. In these music-infused poems, Guerra shares with us her hard-won truths.
Imbued with a sensuality reminiscent of the work of Anaïs Nin, Wendy Guerra’s Delicates takes readers on an exhilarating journey through the cities of love, where women leave their bodies “in the showers of men,” marking their territory “like animals in heat,” their panties “saturated with sand and a sidereal isolating odor.” Guerra’s shocking metaphors and images invite us to enter her gallery of striking and provoking poems where we witness a flight through the air from a thirty-fourth-story window and a woman’s pilgrimage to the salt flats “to taste the pink in stones” on her lover’s behalf. Guerra’s relationship with her native Cuba—much like her relationships with men—is complex and multilayered. Her work confronts the realities of a political system that doesn’t celebrate artistic freedom. Here we have a new way of looking at a woman, an artist, a country, and the colonizers of that country. In these music-infused poems, Guerra shares with us her hard-won truths.
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Paperback
Published June 19, 2023
1 person is currently reading
27 people want to read
About the author
Wendy Guerra
26 books125 followersWendy Guerra (born December 1970) is a Cuban poet and novelist. Guerra contributes to different magazines, such as Encuentro, La gaceta de Cuba, and Nexos, as well as visual arts magazines.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
December 18, 2023
"No one could touch there
like someone cracking the nut
Like slicing life and pulling back
No one could touch there explore with that intimacy of you tasting me
We are related by blood an extension of this secret touch
No one before you could know the key to my sex
You remember which country is mine
I find your back from my awakening
Yours is a secret touch and when you get naked
I feel the same sacred touch of your body
tapping on my gagged waist
No one can pull us apart
We are up there
delirious
and New York's out there
waiting."
// Touché
I have read two of Carlson's translations and one poetry collection. I liked all of them so now I just instinctively pick up whatever has her name on it and I haven't been disappointed yet. Carlson has only translated from French so far and Delicates by Wendy Guerra, originally Spanish, is nearer to her own poetry thematically, which couldn't have been said of Khal Torabully or Alain Mabanckou. I'm not diminishing Snyder's role here though. In these poems, there is a frankness and openness about body and identity that feels fresh. Thus, in the struggle for belonging and home, one has to traverse the countries of the body as well as the bodies of the country. There's an easy sensuality here, but it shouldn't be mistaken for docility; the heat comes from a raging fire. Cuba is obviously central—her native land elicits complex emotions. Delicate is the wound: "I arrive too late to my redemption among the verses."
(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
like someone cracking the nut
Like slicing life and pulling back
No one could touch there explore with that intimacy of you tasting me
We are related by blood an extension of this secret touch
No one before you could know the key to my sex
You remember which country is mine
I find your back from my awakening
Yours is a secret touch and when you get naked
I feel the same sacred touch of your body
tapping on my gagged waist
No one can pull us apart
We are up there
delirious
and New York's out there
waiting."
// Touché
I have read two of Carlson's translations and one poetry collection. I liked all of them so now I just instinctively pick up whatever has her name on it and I haven't been disappointed yet. Carlson has only translated from French so far and Delicates by Wendy Guerra, originally Spanish, is nearer to her own poetry thematically, which couldn't have been said of Khal Torabully or Alain Mabanckou. I'm not diminishing Snyder's role here though. In these poems, there is a frankness and openness about body and identity that feels fresh. Thus, in the struggle for belonging and home, one has to traverse the countries of the body as well as the bodies of the country. There's an easy sensuality here, but it shouldn't be mistaken for docility; the heat comes from a raging fire. Cuba is obviously central—her native land elicits complex emotions. Delicate is the wound: "I arrive too late to my redemption among the verses."
(I received a finished copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.)
Displaying 1 of 1 review