Echoes Carry

Echoes CarryThe poems and memories contained in Echoes Carry encompass generations, however this is no simple nostalgic revery. Serena Agusto Cox writes with affection of her childhood, of Thanksgiving dinners and friendship bracelets, but she is not afraid to confront the darker side of things. We're ushered into her grandmother's kitchen, awash with savory aromas, but that kitchen is also "filled with secrets." There are treasured memories, but these can be

The poems and memories contained in Echoes Carry encompass generations, however this is no simple nostalgic revery. Serena Agusto-Cox writes with affection of her childhood, of Thanksgiving dinners and friendship bracelets, but she is not afraid to confront the darker side of things. We're ushered into her grandmother's kitchen, awash with savory aromas, but that kitchen is also "filled with secrets." There are treasured memories, but these can be splintered, become the "scrapbooked bones of the dead." "On paper," Agusto-Cox reflects "we love ourselves/ friends, times together,/But inside/dark shadows char the edges." The author calls on us to accept the flaws as parts of larger truths, to be unafraid in this quest. Agusto-Cox encourages us to let blare the freedom trumpet, like " ...fireworks exploding on the page...to save us from ourselves."-- W. Luther Jett, author of Flying to America.

The poems of Serena Agusto-Cox reveal life in its intimate, miniature moments...the community bonds forged at swim meets, the crackle of hard-working hands....the cold window glass against a child's head in the backseat of a car. Thanksgiving, a garden, long yearning, a potato pooled with butter--it is all here beneath the quiet, elegant pulse of life assembled with short lines and deep memory and immaculate care."-- Beth Kephart, National Book Award finalist.