A RUPTURE IN THE INTERIORS by VALERIE WITTE

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Reading by Eileen Tabios

A Rupture in the Interiors by Valerie Witte
(Airlie Press, 2023)


Skin, the human body’s largest organ, is not just terrain but a castle wall. Most of its ruptures are inherently unwelcome—for skin to do its job, it shouldn’t crack after it’s allowed the thresholds of eyes, mouth, nose, ears, and genitalia. Valerie Witte’s poems record the aftermaths of such ruptures, including interiors suddenly visible. Punctuation’s vertical bars and brackets become visual poetry for scars and wounds. What’s articulated in between are metaphors for what else exists in the universe, both physically outside as well as psychologically inside. Thus, Witte’s poems accomplish poetry’s most empathetic aspiration: that to bring a poem into the world is to bring the world into a poem.


(Originally writ as a "blurb")


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