This is the debut collection that I've been waiting for since I first met the profoundly gifted Joanne Mallari. Holding Daughter Tongue in my hands brings me joy, and I imagine that readers who are just now discovering this honest and compassionate voice will agree-Mallari is on her way to becoming one of our most fully realized contemporary poets. Her work resonates personal, communal, and cultural histories in ways fresh and startling; in her hands, we see our worlds made flesh. We learn to love "the resonance of an empty bar, / how words search for an ear / to land on..." We learn how "each breath feels / like loud steps in an empty church..." We learn to ask questions: "What is love but a series / of deposits, pennies piling on top / of nickels on top of dimes until / we die or forget?" Indeed, what is love? Read this book. Find out. Gailmarie Pahmeier, Reno Poet Laureate, Emerita, Author of The Rural Lives of Nice Girls
Here is a collection in which we are privileged to witness the careful unfolding of a self, as the speaker strives to understand cultural and family history, faith, identity and desire. This is a collection that "sings Tagalog, sings English," that sings "beneath rainbow flags / and church banners," a collection in which the speaker's "love of God bleeds into her] love for another woman." Beautiful, deeply perceptive and original, filled with sparks of wit and lyrical clarity, these are poems of the moment that are also built to last.
Steve Gehrke, Author of Michelangelo's Seizure
"Under one language the other lies," writes Joanne Mallari in this exquisitely crafted volume. At once formally adventurous and tonally constrained, these poems explore "hybrid s]" of identity, voice, and love through often ordinary acts, from crocheting to doing laundry to singing karaoke in two languages. These are poems to read slowly and then reread, marveling at how "the heart made room."
Ann Keniston, Author of Somatic