Chants

Pat Mora

jan. de 1994 · Arte Publico Press

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El Paso, the pass to the north, lies between vast stretches of desert. This is a geographic accident. Yet like everywhere, people live, love, marry, grow old and die. They also rejoice and despair. These poems relate all these experiences ? but in the magical presence, the telluric force, of the desert. Two women poets sing here, one in the guise of the desert, the other in the figure of Pat Mora. Together they intone Chants. The desertÍs beauty is perceived in subtle gradations of color and texture, in stark contrasts between light and darkness. It speaks as a magical force, as a lonely woman and, for our patience, offers flowers. Like the desert, Pat Mora speaks with muted tones, weaves incantations; she invests her poetic space with magical figures, yet from her loneliness come as well fear, resentment and despair. But she learns the peaceful solitude of the desert. From their dialogue, words become blossoms, fragile in desert rhythms..

Sobre o autor

PAT MORA is a renowned writer of poetry, stories for children and nonfiction. Among her many works are the poetry collections Chants (1984), Borders (1986) and Communion (1994). Mora is also the award-winning and critically acclaimed author of over 30 books for children and young adults, including The Bakery Lady / La seÐora de la panaderÕa (2001), My Own True Name (2000), The Gift of the Poinsettia / El regalo de la flor de nochebuena (1995), Tomàs and the Library Lady, PabloÍs Tree, A Birthday Basket for TÕa, The Desert Is My Mother / El desierto es mi madre (1994), Delicious Hullabaloo / Pachanga deliciosa (1998) and Confetti. In 1999, she was the Garrey Carruthers Chair Visiting Distinguished Professor in Honors at the University of New Mexico. An El Paso native and the mother of three grown children, she divides her time between the Southwest and the Cincinnati area where her husband teaches anthropology.