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A review by arnie
The Country Between Us by Carolyn Forché
5.0
Some really powerful poetry. Most reviews praise her poetry of the horrors of El Salvador, but I think equally powerful are the poems in the 2nd half of the book, many of them taking place on trains and of alienation. However, the El Salvador poems are hard to forget. I particularly like the ending of Return:
Your problem is not your life as it is
in America, not that your hands, as you
tell me, are tied to do something. It is
that you were born to an island of greed
and grace where you have this sense
of yourself as apart from others. It is
not your right to feel powerless. Better
people than you were powerless.
You have not returned to your country,
but to a life you never left.
Your problem is not your life as it is
in America, not that your hands, as you
tell me, are tied to do something. It is
that you were born to an island of greed
and grace where you have this sense
of yourself as apart from others. It is
not your right to feel powerless. Better
people than you were powerless.
You have not returned to your country,
but to a life you never left.