Of Form & Gather (Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize)

Synopsis

Of Form & Gather Marks The Dazzling Debut Of Felicia Zamora, Whose Poems Concern Themselves With Probing Questions, Not Facile Answers. Where Does The Self Reside? What Forms Do We, As Human Beings, Inhabit As We Experience The World Around Us? Echoing The Collection's Provocative Title, Final Judge Edwin Torres Writes: Zamora Has Crafted A Work That Celebrates The Impact Of Form As Human Revolution--the Poem's Breath, The Poet's Body--passing Over Time In A Landscape Thirsty For Passage. Privileging Journey Over Destination, Zamora's Poems Spur The Reader To Immerse Herself In Linguistic Soundscapes Where The Physicality Of The Poems Themselves Is, In No Small Part, The Point: Poems That Challenge Us To Navigate The Word/world As Both Humans And Things. Edwin Torres Continues: This Is Quietly Revolutionary Work. Tectonic Plates Of Hearing That Create New Fissures Inside The Unfolding Kinetic. With The Publication Of This Volume, The Andres Montoya Poetry Prize, Now In Its Seventh Edition, Emphatically Makes Good On Its Aim To Nurture The Various Paths That Latino/a Poetry Is Taking In The Twenty-first Century-- Introduction To The Poems / By Edwin Torres -- Circles & Circulations. Where You Find Yourself -- To Know Little -- Distinct Separation Felt -- Continuous Non-replication -- In The Breast Of -- Of Ghosts -- Fallible Roundness -- In Layer -- In Fasten-nation -- The America Gap -- Prank -- This Tug -- Con-form -- That That That; This This This. In Stage -- Peel-back -- In Still -- O For Passage -- Promise -- Book Of The Robin In The Bird (or Chick Embryo Development) -- In In; Gather Gather. In Patterns -- Sower -- In Middle With Other -- In Tuck -- This Lure -- Not Not -- In Extant -- & In Wonder Too -- In Outline -- Same River -- In Practice -- In Spell -- To Begin -- To Be Out Of--dually Other. Decoy -- Physics Of Where We Stand -- No Fisher -- Drift -- & Wings Made Of Matchsticks. Felicia Zamora.