Description
Book SynopsisIn this remarkable collection, Katherine DiBella Seluja explores issues surrounding human migration, juxtaposing poems about the current struggles along the US-Mexican border with her ancestors’ experiences of migrating from Italy.
Trade ReviewKatherine Seluja's new book enriches the literature of diaspora and the border. These cogent, clear-eyed poems acknowledge death and injustice but also celebrate phenomenal survival and resilience.
Point of Entry is a humane, consistently compelling volume that reminds us what love, courage, and perseverance look like."—Cyrus Cassells, author of
The World That the Shooter Left Us "In
Point of Entry, Katherine DiBella Seluja examines the fraught, contested body of our southern border. Grounded in our current moment, the book also acknowledges the many journeys, across centuries, that terrified children, adults, and families have taken from one country to another. This is a book that recognizes poetry's duty to witness, to speak, and to question the function of fences and walls."—Jehanne Dubrow, author of
Wild Kingdom: Poems "These masterful poems render through body and breath an inner world, an exterior life, a tender, hungry humanity and spirit in action."—Catherine Strisik, author of
The Mistress"With her usual keen attention, sharp eye, and lush language, Seluja walks us through fatal journeys, fractured landscapes, and family histories both broken and enduring. These stunning poems hold precious secrets for survival even as they document grief and loss."—Amy Beeder, author of
Now Make an AltarTable of Contents
- Desert Manifest
- Border Patrol: Truth Be Told
- All the Heroes Are Silent
- Report from the Undertaker
- Because Our Lives Are Small Fires Buried under Dry Fields
- We Never Admit the burden of a Star Living in our Chest
- Humanitarian Release
- To Be Carried This Way
- I Am Told Their Marriage Was Arranged
- (Mi amorcito . . .)
- Carciofo
- In Your Letter You Asked about Ceremony
- Monastery in the Desert, Abiquiu, New Mexico
- Such Is the Story of Leaving
- My Grandfather Teaches Me How to Flay the Heart
- Caceroleada
- Letter to My Suegra from Artesia, New Mexico
- The Function of Walls
- De la tormenta: Desert Survival
- Border Patrol: Por supuesto
- How to Lose One Thousand Four Hundred Seventy-Five Children
- Unsigned Affidavit
- Point of Entry
- My Grandmother Told the Story This Way
- Letter from the Sky: Dear Border
- Postmortem Variations
- In the Drawer of My Grandmother's Writing Desk, the Dead Rest
- Consider the Night
- I Am Told Her Parents Knew Nothing of the Plan
- Your Grandmother's Bolognese
- On the Day I Order My Ancestry Kit, I Also Order Scopa Cards
- We the Dead
- (Querida . . .)
- Freight Train
- The Joy of the Moment Turns Suddenly into a Black Hood with Openings
- For One Brief and Shining Moment She Held the World in Her Body
- Three Angel Studies
- House Made of Fog and Goodwill
- Lament for Joaquin Macias
- In the Pima County Medical Examiner's Office
- Border Response (Deconstructed)
- Legend of the Compassionate Brigade
- Cesare's Gift
- To Be Part of Something Complete and Great
- I Ask My Grandmother to Repeat the Story
- Poem with a Writing Studio and a Cherry Tree Growing from Within
- November Fruit
- April, in a Town Full of Fools
- We Are Welcomed Home by the US
- Border Patrol: La doctora sabe
- I Am Told They Remained after the War
- The Trees Were Filled with Blossoms but No Bees
- (Mi Estrella . . .)
- Notes
- Acknowledgements
- Credits
