Cisneros flows through this astonishing variety of poems with dexterity, moving skillfully from topics of aging to politics to sex.Īt 67 years old, Cisneros writes frankly about aging with refreshing lightness and humor, forgoing any self-pity to celebrate her own aging body. In contrast, the magnificent “You Better Not Put Me in a Poem” is a twelve-page reflection on Cisneros’s lengthy list of past lovers. The three-line “Swallows, Guanajuato Airport,” a snapshot of birds flying inside an airport, can be recited within a single breath. Split into five sections, “Woman Without Shame” demonstrates Cisneros’s ability to navigate a wide range of subjects and styles with ease. Her poetry is candid, often humorous, and, as the title suggests, utterly shameless. She writes in plain free verse, without excessive ornamentation, which works to the collection’s benefit. I still am.” Yes, Sandra Cisneros is still a poet, and she’s determined not to let us forget it. Her latest work, “Woman Without Shame,” is her first new collection of poetry in 28 years, and it is a brazen triumph.Ĭisneros is best known for her 1984 novel “The House on Mango Street” - a fact she pointedly mentions in the acknowledgements of her new collection, writing, “It seems the success of my fiction in my lifetime has overshadowed the fact that I was once a poet. Sandra Cisneros is a legend in Chicanx literature, with a career that has spanned more than 40 years.
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