Author/Artist: Mariela Griffor
Publisher: Luna Press
Exiliana is a first collection of poetry by the Chilean/Detroit poet and publisher Mariela Griffor. The poems are meditations and reveries on love, loss and memory. They speak of many lands and exiles; her poetry a defiant response and weapon against the cold political machinations of fascism, indifference, poverty and neglect. It is work that appears new and fresh with each reading. From her beloved homeland in Chili turned into "a scarlet puddle of idiots, poets, assassins and innocents," to her adopted home in Detroit where "the landscape is an arson," -- "Detroit wake up from your sleep," she cries. These are words and gifts, wrapped in language that only an outsider who has gone through pain and hell can offer.
There is much more in Exiliana than spilled blood and catharsis that bubbles up through her romantic consciousness. Mariela demands a world of dreams and hope, a "holy fight," that will cleanse and heal the past. Like Neruda's mournful Duende poems and dark odes to love, Griffor's first book is born fully formed; a selection of nature songs and gypsy like rhythms that resonate, burn and linger in the mind with a seductive and wild spirit. Self-translated into the language of her exiled home, they soak into you softly as an embrace, a healing balm for wounds of the heart.
Mariela has taken her fight to the streets, and is also the publisher of Marick Press, a young, independent and brave undertaking, devoted to give voice to the rich array of native Detroit talent. Healing comes when we know who we are, when we can feel, read and taste the history before us. These living structures of support and encouragement for artists and poets are rarely seen, yet badly needed, in a city of exposed and ripped insides, and like exotic flora should be preserved and tended to with care.
WillyFogg.com doesn't sell any of the products listed on our site.
To buy a product you need to use the link provided and visit the seller's site.
