Algarve

Sarah Arvio

I won’t go with Jason for the fleecefor all the algae washing on the beachgray and silver green and silver grayall the plastic bottles and old twinebeaching up onto a bed of sandBut there’s something rhythmic in the artan algorithm for an argonautan I’ll-go rhythm or I’ll-go-notI said I’ll go with you anywhereand I’ll come there too if you are therefor where is anywhere if you are therethe washing of the waves along the beachall the plant life of the ancient seathe dune flowers silver gray and blueThese are the ornaments of what I meanthe organza of a revelationthe orgasm of a something-rhythmin the gauzy morning near the seaOur good bad all garbled algebrawhich is the “binding of the broken parts”which was the offering of Al-Jabrergo I’ll go elsewhere if you are there

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Sarah Arvio’s most recent books are Cry Back My Sea (Knopf 2021) and Poet in Spain: New Translations (Knopf 2017). “Algarve” was first published in the final print issue of Triquarterly, edited by Edward Hirsch.

cover of cry back my sea

New York, New York

“These poems are an ode to the heart . . . The intimate love described is at times all desire and physical affection, until it becomes disconnection or violence, with an underlying theme of control over a woman . . . Arvio’s voice is witty and wise, candid and calculated. Although the poems can read like streams of consciousness, each is distinct, worthy, and shaped with skill and inventiveness.”
—Janet St. John, Booklist

“[A] truly original work of art . . . In her use of language, Arvio is among the most luminous and engaging poets of her generation. Even when dealing with a question as terrible as abandonment—the most terrible of all—the light never abandons the song, with its counterpoints and variations.”
—Alejandro Oliveros, Prodavinci

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