Blood Sugar Canto

Reviews/Quotes

Silva is a poet-curandera who "sings the body electric," transforming suffering into song. She probes the ways that love, justice and forgiveness help heal our individual selves and our communities. I am profoundly grateful for ire’ne's hard-won wisdom and poetic gifts. --Demetria Martinez, author of The Block Captain's Daughter Once again, Silva brings us a kind of soul-exploration unprecedented in American letters. A poet of gut-wrenching honesty and visceral language, here, Silva aims her pen at a subject that concerns us all—health. blood sugar canto is an ode to the needle-prick of the diabetic, a letter to the inheritances of hunger and habit, a “love-song” to our collective internal organs. The poet invites us to an intimate dinner at her table, to sit and eat with her, share stories of azucar, of labwork and grace, to indulge ourselves in the unspoken cravings, and we leave nourished, full, and stronger for it. --Tim Z. Hernandez, author of Natural Takeover of Small Things ire'ne lara silva's poetry is the poetry of examination. In blood sugar canto, her verses fight to live and they are hard pressed to surrender. Silva understands that blood and sugar, tortilla y tequila, even at their most deadly, deserve song. When we get tired of speaking, tired of fighting, Silva's poetry will not let us check out for fear; it will stand, song in hand, ready for battle. --Willie Perdomo, author of The Essential Hits of Shorty Bon Bon I am stunned by ire’ne lara silva’s blood sugar canto, a searing and intensely personal and political collection of poems…The exhausted self, pricked by syringes, prodded by clinicians, fights fiercely to love and to decolonize the self, the changing body. Ultimately, Silva’s poems are filled with important, hopeful and triumphant words; “you cannot live in fear / you cannot heal in fear / fear will never make you stronger … i will not / live / in fear / i will make song.” --Barbara Jane Reyes, author of Poeta en San Francisco and Diwata