Sofia: Poems [Paperback]

Joan Logghe (Author), Claire Joysmith (Translator), Arturo Salinas (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 1999

Among the Spanish people who settled New Mexico four centuries ago were Jews forced into exile during the Inquisition. This series of thirty poems reveals the life of one of these crypto Jews, a Hispanic woman with a Sephardic background. Drawing on the stories and lives of actual women as well as on the author's own life in the Española Valley, these poems, written in English and translated into Spanish, are presented bilingually in this powerful book.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Blessed Resistance" and "Sofia"...show her as a prodgiously gifted poet. I think Logghe is a New Mexico Treasure, maybe without an honorific title. -- David Steinberg, Albuquerque Journal

Anglos
First Child
Hard Times
In El Rancho
Insomnia
Manny Stands On The Porch
Manny's Death
Marriage
The Mother Years
Oranges
Pre Nuptial
Sofia Alone
Sofia Builds A Shrine
Sofia Gets A Job A Tg&y
Sofia Has A Child In A Late Year
Sofia Meets A Beggar
Sofia Tells Her Little Sister
Sofia Writes Her Friend Who Has Moved
Sofia's Breasts
Sofia's Brother Vicente Said
Sofia's Gone
Sofia's Sons
Sofia's Will
Something
Sunset Draws Sofia Down
The Wedding
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

It is no coincidence that "Sofia" means the spirit of wisdom in Greek, for through a deceptively simple life the reader learns much about the human heart. -- Miriam Sagan, New Mexico Magazine

Joan Logghe is one of the most exciting poets in America today. He words sing, slide, slip, & jive. I love everything she writes. -- Natalie Goldberg

Sofia dances off these pages, with earthy songs, tears, and prayers, a bride to life's blessings and sorrows come to reawaken your heart. I love this book. -- Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

These poems compirse a biogrpahical collective, chronicling the life of an imaginary Sofia, a Hispanice Catholic woman with Sephardic Jewish roots livingin New Mexico. Sofia as a portrait of a woman is meant to symbolize the religious perserverence necessary to endure the tragedy: sons lost to Vietnam and to drunken driving. Sofia carries on, allowing no expressions of self-pity...Sofia as spirit endures in words deceptively elegant. -- Victor Cruz, The Harvard Review

From the Publisher

Published by La Alameda Press
Distributed by University of New Mexico Press

* If you wish to reproduce the cover of this book along with a review or any publicity, it is necessary to give credit to: Linda Montoya (photographer of cover image), Jumping Bride at Pueblo Drive Inn.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 109 pages
• Publisher: La Alameda Press; Second Printing edition (December 31, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888809116
• ISBN-13: 978-1888809114
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,522,189 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Another special one, February 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Sofia: Poems (Paperback)

If you like Joan's work (or if you haven't gotten around to reading it to find out that you will like it...), this volume is special. Not only does it sing with the usual word-picture-fun-truth, but this book follows a New Mexican woman through her (very real) lifespan. Delicious...