What the Body Told is the second book of poetry from Rafael Campo, a practicing physician, a gay Cuban American, and winner of the National Poetry Series 1993 Open Competition. Exploring the themes begun in his first book, The Other Man Was Me, Campo extends the search for identity into new realms of fantasy and physicality. He travels inwardly to the most intimate spaces of the imagination where sexuality and gender collide and where life crosses into death. Whether facing a frenetic hospital emergency room to assess a patient critically ill with AIDS, or breathing in the quiet of his motherÕs closet, Campo proposes with these poems an alternative means of healing and exposes the extent to which words themselves may be the most vital working parts of our bodies. The secret truths in What the Body Told, as the title implies, are already within each of us; in these vivid and provocative poems, Rafael Campo gives them a voice.
The poems in this collection are powerful and intimate. Although the organization of the book could be tighter, Compo's poem address the devastating effects of AIDS and cancer on patients. Compo brings the reader into the world of the sick and reminds me that beyong our own fear of cancer and AIDS is the power of empathy. When Compo shows me the raw emotions of an woman on the edge of death, I am reminded of life and what it means to live
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