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Description
Sara Daniele Rivera’s award-winning debut is a collection of sprawling elegy in the face of catastrophic grief, both personal and public. From the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election through the COVID-19 pandemic, these poems memorialize lost loved ones and meditate on the not-yet gone—all while the wider-world loses its sense of connection, safety, and assurance. In those years of mourning, The Blue Mimes is a book of grounding and heartening resolve, even and especially in the states of uncertainty that define the human condition.
Rivera’s poems travel between Albuquerque, Lima, and Havana, deserts and coastlines and cities, Spanish and English—between modes of language and culture that shape the contours of memory and expose the fault lines of the self. In those inevitable fractures, with honest, off-kilter precision, Rivera vividly renders the ways in which the bereft become approximations of themselves as a means of survival, mimicking the stilted actions of the people they once were. Where speech is not enough, this astonishing collection finds a radical practice in continued searching, endurance without promise—the rifts in communion and incomplete pictures that afford the possibility to heal.
Sara Daniele Rivera’s award-winning debut is a collection of sprawling elegy in the face of catastrophic grief, both personal and public. From the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election through...
Sara Daniele Rivera’s award-winning debut is a collection of sprawling elegy in the face of catastrophic grief, both personal and public. From the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election through the COVID-19 pandemic, these poems memorialize lost loved ones and meditate on the not-yet gone—all while the wider-world loses its sense of connection, safety, and assurance. In those years of mourning, The Blue Mimes is a book of grounding and heartening resolve, even and especially in the states of uncertainty that define the human condition.
Rivera’s poems travel between Albuquerque, Lima, and Havana, deserts and coastlines and cities, Spanish and English—between modes of language and culture that shape the contours of memory and expose the fault lines of the self. In those inevitable fractures, with honest, off-kilter precision, Rivera vividly renders the ways in which the bereft become approximations of themselves as a means of survival, mimicking the stilted actions of the people they once were. Where speech is not enough, this astonishing collection finds a radical practice in continued searching, endurance without promise—the rifts in communion and incomplete pictures that afford the possibility to heal.
Gorgeous. Heart wrenching. An exposition on what it is to be human. I had tears in my eyes during most of the poems and felt connected to people I didn't even know, but I know have shared these similar situations in life. Too often, I think we assume that we are entirely alone in our experiences but we have more in common with perfect strangers that we anticipate and this collection of poems shows just that.
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
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Linda G, Bookseller
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t read poetry, sometimes from multiple collections. I’m so glad to have found and been an early reader of The Blue Mimes. I particularly enjoy poems that touch on time, grief and memory; this collection by Sara Daniele Rivera alludes to all that and then some.
She opens up her heart and lays bare her immense grief for ones she’s lost. Being at a time when the world is in the grips of a pandemic, we see how this makes the healing process more difficult and extended. Her blending of language and culture make this an absolutely beautiful collection.
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
Was this review helpful?
Educator 861718
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
This is a really lovely meditation on different kinds of grief. The images are startling and beautiful and the poems fit together perfectly as a collection.
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
Was this review helpful?
Jessica M, Reviewer
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
Beautifully written. These collections of poems in English and Spanish shows some thoughtful moments. The words in these poems are a worth of an expression.
Thanks to the publishers at Graywolf Press and NetGalley for giving me an opportunity to read this collection of poems and do a review.
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
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Featured Reviews
Elizabeth W, Librarian
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
Gorgeous. Heart wrenching. An exposition on what it is to be human. I had tears in my eyes during most of the poems and felt connected to people I didn't even know, but I know have shared these similar situations in life. Too often, I think we assume that we are entirely alone in our experiences but we have more in common with perfect strangers that we anticipate and this collection of poems shows just that.
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
Was this review helpful?
Linda G, Bookseller
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t read poetry, sometimes from multiple collections. I’m so glad to have found and been an early reader of The Blue Mimes. I particularly enjoy poems that touch on time, grief and memory; this collection by Sara Daniele Rivera alludes to all that and then some.
She opens up her heart and lays bare her immense grief for ones she’s lost. Being at a time when the world is in the grips of a pandemic, we see how this makes the healing process more difficult and extended. Her blending of language and culture make this an absolutely beautiful collection.
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
4 stars
Was this review helpful?
Educator 861718
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
This is a really lovely meditation on different kinds of grief. The images are startling and beautiful and the poems fit together perfectly as a collection.
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
Was this review helpful?
Jessica M, Reviewer
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
5 stars
Beautifully written. These collections of poems in English and Spanish shows some thoughtful moments. The words in these poems are a worth of an expression.
Thanks to the publishers at Graywolf Press and NetGalley for giving me an opportunity to read this collection of poems and do a review.
Follow My Voice
Ariana Godoy
Multicultural Interest, New Adult, Romance
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