Daniel Shapiro

The Red Handkerchief and Other Poems Daniel Shapiro

Poetry. The passionate images and staunch heart of these poems plunge us deep into the life of the body--and the mystery within and beyond it. The poet knows that whatever we encounter--a face in the bathroom mirror, a dead lover's shirt, even a wig, unexpectedly reimagined--can liberate the true self beneath our fears and disguises. Unsparing yet generous, THE RED HANDKERCHIEF leaves me surprised by hope.--Joan Larkin

A red handkerchief is to open shirts and tawny skin as hustlers and drag queens are to settings of memory, desire, and initiation--'black pools of mirrors, numbers and rooms.' Shapiro's poems liken the signs of sexual pursuit to pathways on a cultural quest of 'clouds to mean / hope instead of loss.' Whether light can prevail is the unease that connects New York to Havana and Guadalajara, on night journeys that a last breath can still commemorate.--Roberto Tejada