ISBN-13: 9780809325702 / Angielski / Miękka / 2004 / 80 str.
In Jon Pineda s debut collection "Birthmark, " loss takes the shape of a scar, memory the shape of a childhood, and identity the shape of a birthmark on a lover s thigh. Like water taking the form of its container, Pineda s poems swell to fill the lines of his experiences. Against the backdrop of Tidewater, Virginia s crabs and cicadas, Pineda invokes his "mestizo"the Tagalog word for being half Filipinochildhood, weaving laments for a tenuous paternal relationship and the loss of a sibling. Channeling these fragmented memories into a new discovery of self, "Birthmark "reclaims an identity, delicate yet unrelenting, with plaintive tones marked equally by pain, reflection, and redemption."