How Long She'll Last in This World (Camino del Sol) [Paperback]

María Meléndez (Author)

Book Description

Series: Camino del Sol | Publication Date: February 1, 2006

Let go your keys, let go your gun, let go your good pen and your rings, let your wolf mask go and kiss goodbye your goddess figurine. With this invocation, María Meléndez beckons us on a journey—an exotic expedition through life’s mysteries in search of the finer strands of experience. In a Latina voice laced with a naturalist’s sense of wonder, she weaves bold images reflecting a world threaded by unseen wounds, now laid before us with an unflinching love of life and an exquisite precision of language. Adopting multiple guises—field researcher, laboring mother, grief-stricken lover—Meléndez casts aside stereotypes and expectations to forge a new language steeped in life and landscape. Whether meditating on a controlled prairie burn or contemplating the turquoise cheek of a fathead minnow, she weaves words and memories into a rich tapestry that resonates with sensual detail and magnifies her sense of maternal wildness, urging us to “Love as much as you / can, don’t throw your heart / away to just one god.” In her paean to the Aztec deity Tonacacihuatl, mother of the gods, Meléndez muses that “How many spirits she’s twin to, and how long she’ll last in this world, / are secrets stashed in the rattle / of corn ears, in the coils / of venomous snakes.” Through stunning images and stark realism, her poems embrace motherhood and vocation, love and grief, land and life, to bring new meaning to the natural world and how we experience it.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“All of the poems in this collection speak directly to the soul.” —Jacket Magazine “A fine poet whose words ring with wisdom, discovery, and unparalleled beauty.”—El Paso Times

About the Author

María Meléndez has canvassed for political organizations and worked as a wildlife biology field assistant. In 2000 she was awarded an Artists-in-Communities grant from the California Arts Council to support her work as writer-in-residence at the UC Davis Arboretum, where she taught environmental poetry workshops for the public. She has authored one chapbook of poetry, Base Pairs, and edited two anthologies, Nest of Freedom and Moon Won’t Leave Me Alone, and is currently assistant professor of English at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: University of Arizona Press (February 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816525153
• ISBN-13: 978-0816525157
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 6.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,831,451 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An articulate and engaging collection of remarkable poetry by Maria Melendez, May 7, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Long She'll Last in This World (Camino del Sol) (Paperback)

How Long She'll Last In This World is an articulate and engaging collection of remarkable poetry by Maria Melendez. Drawing from her expansive knowledge of the environment and biology, Melendez creates poetry which induces muse and highlights the spirit as it carries its readers through a creative and evocative philosophy. American Adhaan (October 2001): Watch night spilling on the western edge/of invisible, its cool surrender/to the peach-colored clouds (just water/that has lately collapsed/into form).//How violently natural/my petroliferous valley looks/in this faint, blue wash;/the slow, arc'd strokes/of a great egret's wings/deny the crude thickness/of this air.//The shattered world's particulates/fall everywhere around us;/the call to prayer means bowing/and facing them all.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An articulate and engaging collection of remarkable poetry by Maria Melendez, May 7, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Long She'll Last in This World (Camino del Sol) (Paperback)

How Long She'll Last In This World is an articulate and engaging collection of remarkable poetry by Maria Melendez. Drawing from her expansive knowledge of the environment and biology, Melendez creates poetry which induces muse and highlights the spirit as it carries its readers through a creative and evocative philosophy. American Adhaan (October 2001): Watch night spilling on the western edge/of invisible, its cool surrender/to the peach-colored clouds (just water/that has lately collapsed/into form).//How violently natural/my petroliferous valley looks/in this faint, blue wash;/the slow, arc'd strokes/of a great egret's wings/deny the crude thickness/of this air.//The shattered world's particulates/fall everywhere around us;/the call to prayer means bowing/and facing them all.