Poet Kathleen Aguero: Two Readings

One of the poets I plan to read more from this year is Kathleen Aguero. Professor of English at Pine Manor College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., she's a bit distant in miles from Vermont, but a bulletin from the college -- which does a Solstice MFA program each year (www.pmc.edu) -- caught my interest, as PMC has scheduled Aguero for two readings in the week of the MFA program: on Sunday March 11 at 2 p.m. in Boston with program director Meg Kearney at Forsyth Chapel, Forest Hill Cemetery (info@foresthillstrust.org and 617-524-0128), and with Richard Hoffman and Linda McCarriston on Tuesday March 13 at 8 p.m. in Cambridge at the Democracy Center (www.democracycenter.org and 617-492-8855).

Aguero's books include Thirsty Day (1977, in combination with Miriam Goodman's Permanent Wave; Alice James Books), The Real Weather (1987, Hanging Loose Press),and Daughter Of (2004, Cedar Hill Books; features Miranda from The Tempest!). She has also edited three volumes of multicultural literature, and her voice is often heard in collections that speak to Latina/o life and writing.

Here's one of her poems:

Where do you live?

And how long have you lived there?
Do you have any children?
This is my mother speaking
to me in a room where her grandchildren's
photos cover the walls. You look tall,
she says, and your hair is so curly.
You still don't comb it. I know
who you are. I just wasn't expecting
someone so young.
--Kathleen Aguero