🎉 Up to 70% Off Selected ItemsShop Sale
The Opposite of Breathing is Cement
"Lies are soothing if chanted like prayer.Once, a healer told me to live for myself. The healer demanded life from me, but dying was easier once I knew how. Dying was easier once I learned howthe opposite of breathing was cement."Breathtaking in every form, The Opposite of Breathing is Cement is an ode to healing by exposing long-held wounds to the light in hopes that something fruitful is created. Icess Fernandez Rojas' debut collection dribbles between political arches, cultural identity, love, and mental illness where in dark corners of the mind exists a brave flicker from a candle. That light is more than hope, it's the start of something new. "We yell our whispers and /save subtlety for our art" in "Forgetting Cuba;" in "My Mothers," Rojas asks to "Recall baptism in clear waters, salted by Earth and divine prayers / slapped awake by rolling waves." She plays with form in duplexes and letters, providing a brevity to the otherwise intense pacing of this collection. Yearn for a change that "comes in pixels and presence / in proclamations and the pounding of feet on cement." Through these poems, bruises, lacerations, and grief are laid bare in unapologetic language. However, from these words also comes joy from the most surprising places, happiness among the ruins of despair, and images of something better always promised around the next corner. "Between the crosses of identities -- Black, Latina, woman, mental health, a child of immigrants living in the South -- Fernandez Rojas paints the reality of existence with ever unraveling truth. She does not stutter nor hesitate. This whole collection wants to have a whole conversation with you, wants to see about you, wants to tell you about all the real things in the world. This book wants to sing to you, tell you all the stories..." Texas Poet Laureate 2022-2023, Lupe Mendez.
$5.23
Original: $14.95
-65%The Opposite of Breathing is Cement—
$14.95
$5.23The Opposite of Breathing is Cement
"Lies are soothing if chanted like prayer.Once, a healer told me to live for myself. The healer demanded life from me, but dying was easier once I knew how. Dying was easier once I learned howthe opposite of breathing was cement."Breathtaking in every form, The Opposite of Breathing is Cement is an ode to healing by exposing long-held wounds to the light in hopes that something fruitful is created. Icess Fernandez Rojas' debut collection dribbles between political arches, cultural identity, love, and mental illness where in dark corners of the mind exists a brave flicker from a candle. That light is more than hope, it's the start of something new. "We yell our whispers and /save subtlety for our art" in "Forgetting Cuba;" in "My Mothers," Rojas asks to "Recall baptism in clear waters, salted by Earth and divine prayers / slapped awake by rolling waves." She plays with form in duplexes and letters, providing a brevity to the otherwise intense pacing of this collection. Yearn for a change that "comes in pixels and presence / in proclamations and the pounding of feet on cement." Through these poems, bruises, lacerations, and grief are laid bare in unapologetic language. However, from these words also comes joy from the most surprising places, happiness among the ruins of despair, and images of something better always promised around the next corner. "Between the crosses of identities -- Black, Latina, woman, mental health, a child of immigrants living in the South -- Fernandez Rojas paints the reality of existence with ever unraveling truth. She does not stutter nor hesitate. This whole collection wants to have a whole conversation with you, wants to see about you, wants to tell you about all the real things in the world. This book wants to sing to you, tell you all the stories..." Texas Poet Laureate 2022-2023, Lupe Mendez.
Product Information
Product Information
Shipping & Returns
Shipping & Returns
Description
"Lies are soothing if chanted like prayer.Once, a healer told me to live for myself. The healer demanded life from me, but dying was easier once I knew how. Dying was easier once I learned howthe opposite of breathing was cement."Breathtaking in every form, The Opposite of Breathing is Cement is an ode to healing by exposing long-held wounds to the light in hopes that something fruitful is created. Icess Fernandez Rojas' debut collection dribbles between political arches, cultural identity, love, and mental illness where in dark corners of the mind exists a brave flicker from a candle. That light is more than hope, it's the start of something new. "We yell our whispers and /save subtlety for our art" in "Forgetting Cuba;" in "My Mothers," Rojas asks to "Recall baptism in clear waters, salted by Earth and divine prayers / slapped awake by rolling waves." She plays with form in duplexes and letters, providing a brevity to the otherwise intense pacing of this collection. Yearn for a change that "comes in pixels and presence / in proclamations and the pounding of feet on cement." Through these poems, bruises, lacerations, and grief are laid bare in unapologetic language. However, from these words also comes joy from the most surprising places, happiness among the ruins of despair, and images of something better always promised around the next corner. "Between the crosses of identities -- Black, Latina, woman, mental health, a child of immigrants living in the South -- Fernandez Rojas paints the reality of existence with ever unraveling truth. She does not stutter nor hesitate. This whole collection wants to have a whole conversation with you, wants to see about you, wants to tell you about all the real things in the world. This book wants to sing to you, tell you all the stories..." Texas Poet Laureate 2022-2023, Lupe Mendez.
