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Open Books: Event Archive
March 11, 2007 03:00 PM
PETER PEREIRA
Peter Pereira draws on his life as physician, son, partner, gardener, and
lover of language to create What's Written on the Body ($15 Copper Canyon
Press), a richly textured collection that both moves and delights. At times
the poems bubble with wordplay -- "I'm interested in the space between /
detonation and denotation.. / How we know / whether to flee / or feel." At
other times they unfold with a quiet grace -- "The patient was talking and I
was not / hearing a sound. But I was listening and // I was there. I was
standing beside and I was / listening with my hands." Though the work does
not turn from life's darker moments of illness, death, cruelty, at its core
this is a book of praise, pleasure, and love, generous in tone and spirit.
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