Homeland of My Body: New and Selected Poems

While this compilation of work from Blanco’s (How To Love a Country) previous four collections omits his widely appreciated 2013 presidential inauguration poem “One Today,” fans of the Cuban American poet will be pleased to also find 34 new poems that continue his explorations into the intimate relationship of human consciousness with the vast world around it (“still trying to piece how I fit into the puzzle of / the constellations”). A poet of the heart, Blanco writes poems that privilege emotional intelligence over analysis or foregrounded aesthetics as he attempts to see through “the fog of difficult times” while “waiting for answers to blow in/ and clear this overcast life.” His subjects range from childhood to sexuality to the visual arts, confronting both personal and national trauma along the way, but the solace and harmony provided by nature and its elements seem to inspire him most deeply (as in the poem “What Governs Us”).