Life Afterlife / A Book of the Hours gathers a lover’s poems from a life together in body and from love translated to grief as the sudden death of her spouse transmutes a woman into the afterlife of a widow. As her husband becomes her spirit mate, she asks him, What are you now?, struggling with Orphean desire. And so, the poems speak intimately to the beloved, turn inward to the self to face the chaos and conflicting emotions of trauma, and journey outward, as the heart broken open witnesses the suffering of others. A book of hours, brief lyric observations of her garden or dream experiences, weaves through the poems. These delicate lines hold the speaker in the present, even as the poems move in other dimensions of time—memory, imagination, and myth.  

Life Afterlife / A Book of the Hours

forthcoming in 2024 from 3: A Taos Press.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`~~~~~~~

The questing and grieving speaker of Life Afterlife/A Book of the Hours fills “the widow hours” with revelatory dreams, consoling garden flowers, firefly sparks, hummingbird flutter, caracols, relics, the inspiriting crafts of war-challenged women, and all matter of cosmic and natural wonders. Verses in line breaks alternate with quicksilver, italicized pieces that limn, beyond mourning’s austere realm, splendor and progress in the outer world, lending an air of inviolable ritual, of profound mystery and renewal. In the face of the seemingly callous, ongoing world, Katherine has fashioned, through juxtaposition, concision, and artfully modulated silences, a sacred book of hours that deftly honors her irreplaceable husband and soulmate, a hard-won text that functions, in fact, as a poignant, shareable Dia de los Muertos altar.

—Cyrus Cassells, Is There Room for Another Horse on Your Horse Ranch?, Texas Poet Laureate, 2021

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Life Afterlife/A Book of the Hours, Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza’s debut collection, is a poetry of doubleness, of two shall become one flesh in every possible way. Not just between two lovers, but also within the central-Texas landscape and sky, whose daily events are the medium through which this love is expressed—cactus blossoms, dew, new moon. Two tongues blending in a kiss and in two languages blending within a single sentence. We move in and out of English, Spanish, hummingbird, apricot tree, music and muscle. “Time moves through us, not us through time,” as the beloved says. This is the most beautiful love poem of a book, a testament to love that is longer than a human life, greater than the world it so loves in every sensual detail.

—Marcela Sulak, City of Sky Papers

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It is a rare spirit who has the mettle to love fully and well what must and will be lost; it is an even rarer spirit who can alchemize that love into language and door for others to walk through. Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza’s Life Afterlife/A Book of the Hours is much more than a balm for a grieving heart, or a healing salve for the one left behind when the beloved is dead (though it is surely those things, and a powerful monument). It is a master class in love, as verb. Love for and with the beloved, for and with the world we inhabit; love for all that is mortal and brief but deeply witnessed and carefully cherished.

Here there are gardens both literal and spiritual, and all the light and life that go on in the presence of death. Lines like “the body becomes what it is,/matter, the elements/that made the instrument” and “I speak to you, Come, stay,/we are only one body now” locate us entirely in the specificity of the known beloved, the integrity of union at the level of body and mind.

Music permeates the poems, as it must, and the poet gives us all the resonance of myth: Orpheus and Eurydice are here, and the canciones of a sacred marriage; there are dances between archetypal roles, glimpses of the deeps of what it is to be a woman, or to husband—finally, the wedded lovers in one body now “bound in ecstasy, a familiar in the spirit world.”

These poems are psychopomps, and like the hummingbirds throughout the book—red-throated as the honeysuckle they kiss—they carry us between the lands of the living and the dead. This book is a gift and a lesson to all of us who love.

—Jessamyn Smyth, Gilgamesh Wilderness

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“No, no borders to grief or the body or the spirit. I am/open. My heart broke open…,” Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza writes in Life Afterlife/A Book of the Hours. And somehow those lines are neither a declaration nor a lament but words whispered in awe and gratitude. Because Katherine understands what few ever learn—that tremendous grief can deliver you into a new life that renders both pain and beauty sharper. “We are in this body of grief together,” she says, and in that knowing, dissolves the borders between the living and the lost, between loving and grieving, between our will and the laws of nature where even “our bones [can] bloom.”

—ire’ne lara silva, the eaters of flowers, Texas State Poet Laureate, 2023

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza’s Life Afterlife / A Book of the Hours, everything is in conversation, filling in and opening up the gap left when her husband’s death interrupted the most crucial dialogue. I say “interrupted” because in her grief, her pages talk back and forth, verso recto recto verso. Her sublime prose poem descriptions of the garden—hummingbirds and cardinals, the smell of sage, the apricot tree, twilight, the Leonids—give rise, give space, give voice to the poem on the facing page, translating each other as we do when we love. As the poet guides us between el otro lado and this side, she (we) question the distinction between memory and presence, the living and the dead, even as loss breaks our hearts: “Is this / your rage at death aflame with mine? / We are in this body of grief together.”

—Aliki Barnstone, Dwelling, Missouri Poet Laureate, 2016-2019

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In this evocative collection of poems by Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza, keenly observed aspects of wildlife and nature intermingle with the liminal borderlands of being. These words of love and loss rise with the breath of imagistic beauty in whose folds we see her depth of emotion and thought. What a lush and profound compilation of work that is at once stunning and achingly gorgeous.

—Pia Taavila-Borsheim, Above the Birch Line

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza’s Life Afterlife/A Book of the Hours is dedicated to her deceased husband, Arturo, “the crane who flies over the hills.” In these beautifully-wrought, elegaic poems there is a wealth of memory and remarkable imagery. This is more than a collection that weaves together two lives: Each remembrance is separated from the next by a lyric image; the overall effect is a tapestry that transports the reader from the reality of loss to the dream world. Reading Life Afterlife/A Book ofthe Hours, I am most reminded of a hummingbird’s flight as it dips into blossom after vivid blossom in a garden that has survived the harshest weather. These moving poems transform her grief evenas they transform our own. “I am a familiar in the spirit world,” Katherine writes. “Mira, the snapdragon shelters its seeds beneath its many calaveras, the roselle wraps them in waxy blankets of flower dead./It feels like autumn here only in morning, summer by early afternoon.” I am grateful for the birth of this collectioninto our world’s tattered garden.

—Pamela Uschuk, Refugee

 

Water Signs (Finishing Line Press, 2009), no. 67 in the New Women’s Voices Series, includes three interlocking sonnet crowns, each situated in the season of a zodiacal water sign: Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces.

Water Signs, New Women’s Voices series, Finishing Line Press, 2009.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Water Signs is a lovely hive of poems, each bound (made free) by form and the pleasures of chain-making. This is a poet whose familiarity with the blooms and deaths of the earthly world are at once intimate, faithful, painful, and finally, celebratory.  

– Kathleen Peirce

Kathleen Peirce is author Mercy, winner of the Associated Writing Programs Prize;  The Ardors; Divided Touch, Divided Color; and The Oval Hour, which won the Iowa Prize and the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America.  She teaches at Texas State University.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There lives the dearest structure deep down things–to paraphrase Hopkins.    But it’s an underlying truth.  We depend on those people who can show us the interconnectedness between objects that are holy and common,  between moments that are mundane and mystical.  In this exquisite series of interlocking sonnets Katherine Oldmixon acquaints us with a particular grandeur, yes, a freshness, that lies deep down.  She is one of those poets that brings clarity to the notion that all things belong together,  all secrets, winds, and psalms are part of one whole and rapturous universe.

-Alan Birkelbach, Texas Poet Laureate 2005

Alan Birkelbach’s volumes of poetry include No Boundaries, Grand Prize Winner of the Pat Stodghill Book Publication Award, and Weighed in the Balances, Grand Prize Winner of the Steves Poetry Manuscript Competition.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Katherine Durham Oldmixon has written a gorgeous sonnet sequence, a family history and (even more) a chronicle of the natural world. There is struggle in these sonnets, but also, more strongly, “the blue joy that adumbrates life.” Oldmixon returns dusty poetic symbols to their natural wellsprings, giving seasons and their weather back to the world, refreshed.

-Susan M. Schultz

Susan M. Schultz is a poet, critic, and publisher who lives in Kane`ohe, Hawai`i on the island of O`ahu. She is author of Aleatory Allegories (Salt, 2000), Memory Cards and Adoption Papers (Potes & Poets, 2001), And Then Something Happened (Salt, 2004), and Dementia Blog (Singing Horse, 2008). She edited The Tribe of John: Ashbery and Contemporary Poetry (Alabama, 1995), and wrote A Poetics of Impasse in Modern and Contemporary American Poetry (Alabama, 2005). She edits Tinfish Press and teaches at the University of Hawai`i-Manoa.

“Amor Encendido”

Available on youtube.com

“Amor Encendido” is a song in Spanish of love and longing. 

“Amor Encendido,” performed by Tish Hinojosa
Music by Robert Skiles
Lyrics by Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza

Arranged and produced by Isaac Peña , sung by Tish Hinojosa, Tony Rogers on cello, Laura Mordecai on percussion, Dylan Jones on bass, Robert Skiles on piano, Video Editor, Orlando Lopez

(Hummingbird Photograph by Katherine Durham Oldmixon Garza)