Out of Violence into Poetry

Overview

Margaret Randall#&39;s most recent collection of poems, Out of Violence Into Poetry, was written over these past few years when language itself was violated by a president who lied until each lie, repeated often enough, resembled a terrible truth in the public discourse. Reality, sanity, beauty: all bend and run the risk of breaking when distorted beyond recognition. These poems consciously restore language to its natural habitat. They deal with history, memory, loss, life, death, and promise. They address love and aging. They become a welcome refuge at a time of uncertainty and take us on disparate journeys that often have surprising twists. There is humor as well as rage. We cannot leave it to the politicians alone to give words their meaning back. That is the job of poets, and this book does that job well. Randall is the author of nearly 200 books, spanning more than six decades. Out of Violence into Poetry may well be her finest collection of poetry to date.

Reviews

"Out of Violence into Poetry by Margaret Randall represents the height of poetry written in any language in the last hundred years and constitutes the broadest, most generous, penetrating and most profound gamble on the part of an extraordinary human being, an extraordinary life and work, on that which we call future. This book—concrete, situated, tangible in its truth and commitment, in its fierce and corrosive irony and public kindness and compassion—creates a fresco that is at once compendium and legacy. This is true from the first poem, #&39;Portrait of the Artist as an Old Woman,#&39; to the last line of the poem that ends the collection, #&39;Promising Trouble When I’m Gone.#&39; Here are the most penetrating and powerful metaphors that a book of poetry can give us in the unending, second-to-second struggle that millions of people across the face of the earth wage in order to become fully human and continue to be so. Only a great poet, a poet of Margaret Randall’s magnitude, could title her book Out of Violence into Poetry and include in it one of the most moving poems I have had the privilege of reading: #&39;I Celebrate.#&39; No one who reads or writes will be able to diminish this poetic triumph. As with all great works, no one could have imagined something like it could have been written. And yet it was. Thank you, Margaret Randall." —Raul Zurita, Chile’s National Literature Prize (2000) and the Pablo Neruda Award (1988)
 

"Ever courageous, in these poems de memoria, Margaret Randall faces this hour of plague looking back at catastrophes that ravaged Mexico, Cuba and Central America in her younger days. She upholds the #&39;mystery that catches light…but something is lost, fashioned of blood and memory.#&39; As witness, writer, mother and revolutionary, she marshals a confidence: #&39;I never doubted / I would do it all.#&39; Yet in nightmares she is endlessly looking for a passport before a flight to Cuba. In spite of the closing door of her time, she sees #&39;a future gripped by the music of wings.#&39; She is undeterred at 84. A tribute she writes for a friend—that death #&39;doesn’t close a door, your name / remains a fierce marker#&39; —describes her own valor and integrity." —Renny Golden, author of The Music of Her Rivers

 

"These poems are like a shield. As one reads them, they become a gentle sailboat plowing the Southern seas as a few fish, algae, moons and stones leap around it—thrown against its timeless journey—its primary nourishment. The sun beyond. An itinerant beating heart, out of violence into poetry." —Nancy Morejón, National Literature Prize, Cuba 2001

 

"Reading Margaret Randall’s new book, Out of Violence into Poetry, affirmed not only my intellectual understanding of it but it was also a deeply emotional experience for me. The literary dynamic of being human is complex, intense, extensive—and seemingly limitless—and at times the human soul-spirit may feel overly challenged. Human expression is as vast as human experience and, in this book not every word, feeling, focus, view is acceptable to all, but that is poetry. I highly recommend reading Randall’s poetry." —Simon J. Ortiz, Acoma poet-writer, Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers Circle of the Americas

"This book was my introduction to Randall’s poetry, it will not be the last of her books I will read. These poems were written from 2018 to 2021. She writes about anything—from Today Was a Good Day, “I woke up this morning / and was able to get out of bed…” to her times in Latin America, including Cuba, to the current Covid pandemic.... She is a fearless poet, not hesitant to write about any subject that affects her, that is painful, that is joyful. She writes about her recurring nightmares, and I’m grateful they are not mine. Because Randall does not fear death, she has not been afraid to live." —Lenora Rain-Lee Good

Author Biography

Margaret Randall is a feminist poet, writer, translator, photographer, and social activist. She is the author of over 150 books. She received the 2019 Hayde´e Santamari´a Medal from Casa de las Americas in Havana, and the prestigious 2019 Poet of Two Hemispheres Prize, presented by Ecuador’s Poesi´a en Paralelo Cero. In 2017, she was awarded the Medal of Literary Merit by Literatura en el Bravo, Chihuahua, Mexico. The University of New Mexico granted her an honorary doctorate in letters in 2019. She received the 2020 George Garrett Award from AWP and the Paulo Freire Prize by Chapman University.