{"product_id":"the-weight-of-recognition-maria-vasquez-boyd-9781958182086","title":"The Weight of Recognition","description":"\"Maria Vasquez Boyd's poetry collection \u003cem\u003eThe Weight of Recogntion\u003c\/em\u003e begins with the line, \"At birth his tiny heart was replaced with a rabbits' heart.\" It is a jolting line given her disclosure of a heart condition. (All is better and getting better.) This is no lament but the words of a woman whose heart is, \"the shape of a mourning dove\/hunkered down in the wind. ... the shape of fists\/that pummel locked doors.\" This is a poet alive in the world serving notice. \"Gentle hearts bend to carry parched souls\/Back to the ground where desperate journeys begin. ... Hearts divided between two worlds who forge trails of tears\/ and two paragraphs in history books.\" While \"Pragmatic men motionless\/prefer sickness to the cure,\" Boyd is, \"The woman who decorates her forearms with henna instead of razor blades\/considers flesh filled loops and spirals\/like a walking hieroglyph awaiting translation.\" In Whisper Song, one of many gems in this collection, Boyd asks, \"What offerings does one make to a soul whose journey is long and uncertain?\" The answer comes in the last line of the collection \"... she leaned over the\/cockpit\/ and thanked the pilot for the ride.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e -Jose Faus is a founding member of the Latino Writers Collective and sits on the boards of \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e the Latino Writers Collective, UMKC Friends of the Library, Charlotte Street Foundation \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e and is president of the board of The Writers Place.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"Maria Vasquez Boyd's \u003cem\u003eThe Weight of Recognition\u003c\/em\u003e is a fascinating poetic quest in which the poet asks whether the self (the \"shifting mask\" in the mirror) can be located by faith or doubt, through her heritage or self-portrait in \"slow paint,\" in romantic imagination or mundane experience (like mending pocket holes). Its chief recurring image is the human heart-like a fist, a mouth, a mourning dove \"hunkered down\" in wind; beating to the \"pizzicato\" of a clock; related to the monarch butterfly that the poet places inside her shirt. Boyd's collection features fresh imagery, honest longing, highly original use of language, and-best of all-an epiphany of self-knowing.\"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e-Linda M. Lewis, \u003cem\u003e This Swirling Largesse \u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Maria Vasquez Boyd turns the reader into, \"A person of magic\" who \"happily discovers \/ glass that shimmers \/ and sprouts \/ from a well-tended garden.\" This book is that garden. Precisely pruned and paired down so it's blooms can display the beauty in growth. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e -Huascar Medina, 7th Poet Laureate of Kansas, author of Un Mango Grows in Kansas City\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Weight of Redemption\u003c\/em\u003e by Maria Vasquez Boyd is an ethereal journey through stars and sky, a book of heavenly and earthly bodies, of imperfect hearts-tiny rabbit heart, heart shaped like a mourning dove, heart divided between two worlds, paper-folded hearts, gentle and elusive hearts, pounding and black hearts-- and stones, stones semi-precious, shiny, smooth, glowing or sinking. In this book \"everything moves outward and accelerates\" with borderless butterflies, the power of birds, a \"shifting mask in the mirror,\" ancient and modern stories, of all that is important about the natural, visceral, and spiritual world. Vasquez Boyd puts us there. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e -MaryFrances Wagner, Poet Laureate of Missouri, author of Solving for X (Spartan Press, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e 2022)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Maria Vasquez Boyd\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1958182087\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781958182086\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Spartan Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/03\/2022\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 66\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.18lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.00w x 0.16d","brand":"Maria Vasquez Boyd","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":44080559685887,"sku":"9781958182086","price":13.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_764988c1-22a6-48c5-8b22-4e6ee3474483.jpg?v=1685487478","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-weight-of-recognition-maria-vasquez-boyd-9781958182086","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}