World To World

In her second collection of poems, Valerie Martinez builds on the artistic command of language that characterized her award-winning first volume, "Absence, Luminescent." Taking on not only such familiar themes as love and loss, family and culture, but also the creative act of poetry itself, "World to World" crosses new boundaries to chart a mature poet's awareness of her own voice and style. Martinez explores the dynamic of creation/dissolution in original and intriguing ways. Here are the strange and provocative landscapes of the body and its disappearance . . . of matter and the absence of matter . . . of what is formed and what is falling from form. Throughout this compelling cycle, her deft manipulations of poetic structure disclose the boundaries where flesh, matter, and language become spirit, space, and "cataractical brilliance." In charting the relationships between time, form, body, language, and emptiness, "World to World" maps the territories where the visible and the invisible meet, offering unexpected discoveries for discerning readers.