by J. Estanislao Lopez (Author)
We Borrowed Gentleness interrogates the innateness of pain and forms of destruction--through natural disaster, through God, through family, and through the power structures and patriarchal violence that embeds itself in language and cultural memory. Poems critique and challenge the patriarchal narratives that dominate American history.
The poems leave the question open of whether man, men, a father and son, are redeemable after the surge of rising white nationalism in America. And yet, there are poems that find, still, bits of joy and perhaps a shred of hope.By juxtaposing poems of louder narrative imagination with quieter poems that explore intimate failings within a family, often portrayed with a realist aesthetic, the book attempts to work through the essential fault in man, in men--in the structures that they design and maintain.
Author Biography
J. Estanislao Lopez's poetry has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, Adroit Journal, Boston Review, BreakBeat Poets Vol. 4: LatiNext, and elsewhere. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Best New Poets, and Best of the Net. His debut collection, We Borrowed Gentleness, is forthcoming from Alice James Books in October 2022. He earned an MFA from the Warren Wilson Program for Writers and lives in Houston.