Judith Ortiz Cofer’s third volume of poetry collects thirty-four poems written over the course of many years. In places as stark as a New Jersey barrio or fabled as the island home of Penelope and Odysseus, the people in these poems sometimes resist, sometimes reconcile, multiple cultures, tongues, and traditions as they navigate over ever-changing landscapes.
JUDITH ORTIZ COFER (1952–2016) was the Regents’ and Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing Emerita at the University of Georgia. She is also the author of The Latin Deli: Telling the Lives of Barrio Women, An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio, Woman in Front of the Sun: On Becoming a Writer; and many other books. The University of Georgia Press published her first novel, The Line of the Sun, in 1989.
JUDITH ORTIZ COFER (1952–2016) was the Regents’ and Franklin Professor of English and Creative Writing Emerita at the University of Georgia. She is also the author of The Latin Deli: Telling the Lives of Barrio Women, An Island Like You: Stories of the Barrio, Woman in Front of the Sun: On Becoming a Writer; and many other books. The University of Georgia Press published her first novel, The Line of the Sun, in 1989.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
ix
1
Beginning in Spanish
Beans: An Apologia for Not Loving to Cook
3
Before the Storm
5
Lessons of the Past
7
A Theory of Chaos: October 1962
9
Dominoes: A Meditation on the Game
11
from A Sailor's Wife's Journal
13
Siempre
19
The Poet's Work
21
Here Is a Picture of Me
22
That Old Tune
23
First Job: The Southern Sweets Sandwich Shop and Bakery
25
Notes for My Daughter Studying Math on the Morning of a New Year
Judith Ortiz Cofer is a poet whose music pervades my life long after I've finished reading. A Love Story Beginning in Spanish inspires me and heartens me.
