What Happens Is Neither

Angela Narciso Torres

• Publisher: Four Way Books
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781945588693
• eBook ISBN: 9781945588815
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

A deeply-sensorial reflection on presence, absence, and the act of losing

"What Happens Is Neither / the end nor the beginning. / Yet we're wired to look for signs," offers the speaker of Angela Narciso Torres's latest collection, which approaches motherhood, aging, and mourning through a series of careful meditations. In music, mantra, and prayer, Torres explores the spaces in and around grief—in varying proximity to it and from different vantage points. She writes both structurally formal poems that enfold the emotionality of loss and free verse that loosens the latch on memory and lets us into the sensory worlds of the speaker's childhood and present. In poems set in two countries and homes, Torres considers what it means to leave a mark, vanish, and stay in one place. In a profound act of recollection and preservation, Torres shows us how to release part of ourselves but remain whole

Contents

1. Cover Page
2. Title Page
3. Dedication
4. Copyright Page
5. Contents
6. If You Go to Bed Hungry
7. Stone Fruit
8. Sundowning
9. Self-Portrait as Rosary Beads
10. Recuerdo a mi Madre
11. Feather
12. Kinds of Stillness
13. Disappearing Act
14. Ode to a Realistic AM/FM Radio at a Church Rummage Sale
15. Prelude and Fugue
16. Alzheimer’s
17. Lines from a Journal I
18. Pearl Diving
19. Confessions of a Transplant
20. Translating the Dead
21. Slash-and-burn
22. Concha
23. The Immigrant Visits Her Mother
24. Warm Spell, February
25. Pont des Arts
26. September, Chicago
27. Repainting the House
28. Shed
29. Narrow Bed
30. At Lula’s
31. To the One We Lost
32. Ode to the Areola
33. The Foul Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart
34. Return
35. After Dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf
36. Self-Portrait as Water
37. Four Years after Diagnosis
38. Relief Map
39. To Replace a Tree Eaten by Ash Borers Requires a New Vocabulary
40. August
41. Nocturne
42. Some Uses of Friction
43. Watch
44. What Isn’t There
45. Suburban Backyard in Late July
46. Lines Borrowed from a Marriage and Other Places
47. The Abscission Layer
48. What Happens Is Neither
49. Lilli’s Urn
50. The Morning I Hear
51. Breathe
52. Reading This Poem at My Father’s Funeral I Choke on the Word “Balsamic”
53. Chore
54. Lines from a Journal II
55. Via Negativa
56. Last
57. Sea Psalm
58. What I Learned This Week
59. In the Dream I Return Home
60. Self-Portrait as Revision
61. Notes
62. Acknowledgments
63. About the Author

If You Go to Be...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• If You Go to Bed Hungry
• Stone Fruit
• Sundowning
• Self-Portrait as Rosary Beads
• Recuerdo a mi Madre
• Feather
• Kinds of Stillness
• Disappearing Act
• Ode to a Realistic AM/FM Radio at a Church Rummage Sale
• Prelude and Fugue
• Alzheimer’s
• Lines from a Journal I
• Pearl Diving
• Confessions of a Transplant
• Translating the Dead
• Slash-and-burn
• Concha
• The Immigrant Visits Her Mother
• Warm Spell, February
• Pont des Arts
• September, Chicago
• Repainting the House
• Shed
• Narrow Bed
• At Lula’s
• To the One We Lost
• Ode to the Areola
• The Foul Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart
• Return
• After Dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf
• Self-Portrait as Water
• Four Years after Diagnosis
• Relief Map
• To Replace a Tree Eaten by Ash Borers Requires a New Vocabulary
• August
• Nocturne
• Some Uses of Friction
• Watch
• What Isn’t There
• Suburban Backyard in Late July
• Lines Borrowed from a Marriage and Other Places
• The Abscission Layer
• What Happens Is Neither
• Lilli’s Urn
• The Morning I Hear
• Breathe
• Reading This Poem at My Father’s Funeral I Choke on the Word “Balsamic”
• Chore
• Lines from a Journal II
• Via Negativa
• Last
• Sea Psalm
• What I Learned This Week
• In the Dream I Return Home
• Self-Portrait as Revision
• Notes
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author