The Eaters of Flowers - by Ire'ne Lara Silva (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

In The Eaters of Flowers, her third book of poems for Saddle Road Press, after the much-loved Blood Sugar Canto and Cuicacalli/House of Song, Ire'ne Lara Silva writes about the loss of her brother, her adopted son. In her unique canto style she sings the stunned, broken months following his death, navigating grief, loss, loneliness, and the remembrance of joy, as she begins to re-assemble her life.

Review Quotes

"In the eaters of flowers, ire'ne lara silva continually lifts the personal, the vulnerable heart and body, into the indomitable and the mythic. Turning hard-to-shake grief into human resilience and passionate commemoration ('we are eaters of time / eaters of memory eaters of beauty'), this reliably candid and fearless writer, a master of urgent anaphora and witness, addresses fellow survivors, curanderas, and family ghosts. The book's ongoing floral conceit skillfully links peace-granting flowers to a sense of sacred communion (hibiscus tacos!) and the necessary tenderness for getting along in this knockabout world."

-Cyrus Cassells, 2021 Texas Poet Laureate

"Reading ire'ne lara silva's glorious the eaters of flowers is to willingly tangle yourself within a spell, a repetition of magical words. We are given access to a cryptic language that assumes power over loss. There is a presence in every poem in this collection. It is not looming but immanent. It complicates, disrupts, elevates, and heals. It is nourishing. I read these poems expecting to be moved, but not to be shattered. silva presents us with the gift of sharing her enormous grief at the loss of her luminescent brother, still fresh in her heart. We follow her through the experience of healing and discovery, of confronting a new freedom granted at such a steep price. I found myself as one of those 'eaters of memory eaters of beauty' and the beauty was everywhere in these meditations on familia, history, illness, suffering, and, most of all of dreaming-dreaming of flowers, dreaming of living, of loving. What a massive, powerful, beating heart of poetry. What a blessing."

-Rodney Gomez, author of Arsenal with Praise Song and Geographic Tongue