Chiapas Diary by Elaine R. Chamberlain

$14.99

 

“A richly sensory, deeply observed recreation of a piece of the world whose flavors range from wheezing buses to violent storms to yellow orchids and chiclet gum to the bitterness of desire and the death of children and the cruelty of war. Elaine Chamberlain sees it all—and smells and tastes it and hears and touches it.”
–Ann Goldsmith

 

“Elaine Chamberlain’s poems are prayers lush with the melody of the landscapes and heartbreak of dying children in Chiapas, Mexico, where the poet was a nurse for many years. And the legs / turn in at the knees / and bow / as if hunger / were a horse / to be ridden. Each poem wraps itself around me with its compassion and honesty and shakes my humanity, demanding I give thanks for my body and the breath that keeps me alive. These poems crack me open and make me feel the way only the best poems can. You will be enraptured by the stories of the people, and the landscape that Elaine Chamberlain so gorgeously describes: I did not know / I could love a valley / and a mountain / as much as I have loved / a man / and a child.”  

–Sara Ries-Dziekonski  

 

 

 

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Chiapas Diary

by Elaine R. Chamberlain

$14.99, paper

979-8-88838-019-2

2022

Chiapas Diary chronicles the poet’s work as a nurse in Chiapas, Mexico. Poem after poem will crack you open and reveal the sick and dying who take up residence inside you. You will be unable to look away, but you will be drawn to the haunting beauty no matter how dangerous, and to the abundant love no matter how desperate. You come face to face with the: “dry skin/ the bones poking through it/ the bony arms, the bony legs/ the phantom movements of/ the ribs the beads of his spine/ slipping through your fingers.” This collection of prayers and love poems for the people and landscape of Chiapas creates a ceremony with words placed “before an altar/ and… a fire/ or copal.”

Elaine R. Chamberlain grew up in Seattle, lived in Mexico, and now resides near Buffalo, New York.  Elaine is a former area coordinator of the New York State Poets in the Schools program. She is one of the original staff members of Earth’s Daughters literary magazine. She taught Creative Writing and Composition at Erie Community College in Buffalo, New York.

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