Because We Come from Everything: Poetry & Migration: Silvia Curbelo

"Exilio: Olga, La Habana," 1967,  José A. Figueroa

A Short History of Goodbye

by Silvia Curbelo

 

The grass tells nothing.
The sky sits in its simple
cage of days. No sound
like the past blowing through.

Only the wind knows what’s
at stake here, moving into
the scenery, running at the mouth.
Hush, say the daylilies

shaking their heads a bit.
Silence is its own music,
soft as dirt. No one notices
the orphan drift of clouds,

the wingtip scar of the horizon
balanced between nowhere
and this. Hush,
whisper the azaleas.

But nothing’s as wordless 
as a young girl standing on the lawn
waving her handkerchief.

Silvia Curbelo was born in Matanzas, Cuba, and emigrated to the U.S. as a child. She is the author of two full-length poetry collections, Falling Landscape and The Secret History of Water, both from Anhinga Press, and two chapbooks, Ambush, winner of the Main Street Rag chapbook contest, and The Geography of Leaving (Silverfish Review Press). She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, three Florida Division of Cultural Affairs Grants, and two Cintas Foundation Fellowships, all for poetry, as well as the Jessica Noble Maxwell Poetry Prize from American Poetry Review, and the James Wright Poetry Prize from Mid-American Review. Her poems have been published widely in literary journals and more than two dozen anthologies, including The Body Electric (W.W. Norton), Touching the Fire: 15 Poets of the New Latino Renaissance (Anchor/Doubleday), and the Norton Anthology of Latino Literature. Spanish translations of her poems are featured in the anthology Usos de la Imaginación (Editorial de la Univ. Nacional), Mar de Plata, Argentina. Silvia lives in Tampa, Florida.

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“Because We Come from Everything: Poetry & Migration” is the first public offering of the newly formed Poetry Coalition—twenty-two organizations dedicated to working together to promote the value poets bring to our culture and communities, as well as the important contributions poetry makes in the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds. Coalition member Letras Latinas at Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies has partnered with the Best American Poetry blog to present ten poems in March that engage with this year’s theme, which borrows a line from U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera’s poem, “Borderbus.” The poems in this project were curated by Francisco Aragón &  Emma Trelles. 

Comments

[northierthanthou]

Brings to mind a few similar goodbyes.

...and a trace of sorrow.

[emmatrelles]

yes, this poem's universal nature is one of the many qualities I admire about it. thanks for reading & for the feedback.

[Daniel Lee]

Migration and refugees still remain ones of the top modern global issues. I like this point of view on the whole situation http://planetaryproject.com/culture/sintez/ . As for the poetry, I never was a big fan, but you inspired me to read both of her books.

[jil 9]

Very cool poem!