Heart's Migration

by Linda Rodriguez

Simultaneously clear yet mythically transcendent, the poems in Heart’s Migration speak power in a woman’s voice. Rodriguez unmasks the human heart in its many beguiling and compelling passion, oppression, and liberation. She evokes and re-imagines classical, biblical, Cherokee, Latino, and other American themes in strikingly personal and sometimes humorous ways as she lovingly renders the heart’s eternal encounter with joy and loss.

Genres: Poetry

150 pages, Paperback

First published April 30, 2009

About the author

Linda Rodriguez’s novel, Every Last Secret featuring Skeet Bannion, won the 2011 St. Martin’s Press/Malice Domestic First Novel Competition and will be published by St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books on 4/24/2012. Rodriguez has published two books of poetry, Heart’s Migration (Tia Chucha Press, 2009), winner of the 2010 Thorpe Menn Award for Literary Excellence, and Skin Hunger (Potpourri Publications, 1995, Scapegoat Press, 2007). She received the 2010 Inspiration Award from the KC Arts Fund, the 2009 Elvira Cordero Cisneros Award from the Macondo Foundation, and the 2009 Midwest Voices and Visions Award from the Alliance of Artists Communities and the Joyce Foundation and has been both a Ragdale Fellow and a Macondo Fellow. She is the vice-president of the Latino Writers Collective, a member of International Thriller Writers, Sisters in Crime, The Writers Place, and Wordcraft Circle of Native American Writers and Storytellers, and has published poetry and fiction in numerous journals and anthologies. Her poems have been broadcast on The Writers Almanac with Garrison Keillor (NPR) and New Letters on the Air (NPR). She is currently working on a book of poetry based on teachings from her Cherokee grandmother and another novel featuring Skeet Bannion.

Reviews

[Andrea Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Linda Rodriguez's writing speaks to the spirit. I took my time and savored each word, every element, every line and then re-read them over again to capture the essence of the feelings that she was conveying. Magic, pure and inspiring magic. This is one to go back to again and again to see if there was something that you had yet to glimpse and if you are fortunate you may even glimpse something in your own heart that you were not yet aware of. I could write every poem out here for you and yet I think I will share just one that gave me a glimpse of something within myself, it was not only one in this collection that spoke volumes to me. Thank you Linda!

From (p.26) THE ONLY WOMAN POET
I encountered, growing up
was St. Emily Dickinson
the White. I hated her.
She seemed to say
if you want to write
poetry, great poetry,
you have to talk soft and sweet,
wear white, hide
in the house like a coffin
never have a life, bind
your personality tight when young and live through
agonies of stunted bones and marrow
so you can be
carried around by male critics and poets
on a white pillow, suitably
and decoratively and appropriately
crippled.
The mandarins loved her.
I hated her.
You get the idea, the poem goes on to tell the truth as understood by a grown up. I absolutely love this collection.

[EIJANDOLUM · Rating 5 out of 5]

Could we ever learn,
my shadow Arjuna, to open ourselves
to the need for love
around us like a watery envelope?
All my desire is useless,
used-up, futile.
Your smokescreen,
Arjuna, veils your heart
from mine, put on display for crowds
of callous foreigners.
I could be your eyes,
my unmet love, and make you see.
We could pool our light
break through the clouds
that separate hearts
in the shadows
on this maya-moment’s screen.

[Kristin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried. Just couldn't care to finish...the book is the size of three "normal" full-length books of poetry, and could have benefited from some serious editing. The poems, too, could have benefited from some serious editing. Know when enough's enough. I did, which is why I only made it through 2/3. I tried.