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BOOK REVIEWStogether; hands are compelled to begin performingtheir sensing duties, they generate countlessresonances of energy in bodies that once lovedeach other oblivious of passion, but now recognizeit with the certainty of whom knows the move thatshould follow; a love that persists in the cell’s pact,a seal that erases the years of controlled entropy; (5)“Las glándulas del amor” become the dynamic site of the body’senergies, sensations, and perceptions. The loveglands release afragrance that “reaches a radius far beyond what has been conceivedof as the aura,” thus transforming the body into more than“a mass of organs and tissues organized around the skeleton” (19).The trance-like movement of Zemborain’s lyricism leads us to,[…] perceiving the body asone of those drawings of cells with a nucleus,then something like the albumen, and then anirregular edge that is flexible so as to establishosmotic relationships with other cells;” (21)The loveglands form the structure and imaginary of the “nongeometricalkaleidoscope” of the poems themselves. As Zemborainasserts: “it is not that the brain controls the glands, as is commonlythought, but rather that the glands control the brain” (23-5). Thisalso seems to suggest that the composition of the book emergesfrom the osmotic relationship between thought and intuition.The second section, “the furious petals” moves from the glandularstructure of the body to the body composed by death and aging:the awe that the grave inspires becomesaccentuated in one’s features, in one’s handsan unuttered knowledge deteriorates; (43)By reimagining the body, Zemborain manages to juxtapose theliveliness of the body’s deeper structures with the “desolation ofa body that lives and palpitates and begins to understand inevitability”(47). This juxtaposition creates a striking thematic tensionwithin the already tensed syntax of the poems. Although this tensiondoes not revolve around a named character, Zemboraindoes address a “tough female,” referring to one flower that “daresin the cast off field”: “do not respond, tough female, to the randomuproar of your displacement; open your eyes to dusk” (35).Continuing the flow of embodiment, the third section more fullycontours the “tough female” as a “she”: “she mourns, mourns thebody, mourns while licking the wound that won’t close;” (67). Weare never directly told her situation; instead, we are left withprovocative questions: “who is it? where does it come from? whatdoes it want?” (63) and “who announces the living’s spectacularradiance?” (65). Zemborain’s use of questions forms an engagingsyntactical counterpoint and adds another tonal layer to themostly declarative narration. Although most of what we learnabout “her” is more of a mapping than a telling, we do learn “thatTHEMFA INWritingPROGRAMCORE FACULTY:Stephen BeachyDavid BoothCatherine BradyLewis BuzbeeLowell CohnNorma ColeLisa HarperAaron ShurinKarl SoehnleinJane Anne Staw...in the heart of San Francisco• Fiction, poetry, andnonfiction concentrations• All evening courses• Two-year program culminatingin a book-length workPlease visit our newliterary magazine, Switchback,at www.swback.comCALL: (415) 422-6066EMAIL: MFAW@USFCA.EDUVISIT: WWW.USFCA.EDU/MFAWFOR A COMPLETE LISTING OF ALLGRADUATE PROGRAMS AT USF, VISIT:WWW.USFCA.EDU/GRADUATERECENTVISITING WRITERS:Kate BravermanBei DaoDiane di PrimaAugust KleinzahlerKyoko MoriBharati MukherjeeEileen MylesGeorge SaundersRebecca SolnitJohn Edgar WidemanEducating Minds and Hearts to Change the World30 february/march 2009