Impure Acts, by Ángelo Néstore (tr. Lawrence Schimel)

Description

Ángelo Néstore’s poems in Impure Acts are both heartbreaking and an absolute joy to read. I especially love “When I Picked the Wrong Bar.” —Hollie McNish

Ángelo Néstore’s poetry, his “impure acts,” changes the whole cartography of desire with the beautiful perfection of a modern, dream-like demiurge who knows he is in absolute possession of his glory. Poem-temples, poem-traps, gaps in the disquiet for those who will have no better illumination than that which is offered by this dialogue between poet and reader. Communion, I would say, if communion were not sometimes dangerously conflated with religiosity. Poems which, in their exquisite and innovative craftsmanship, already demand a canonical place in our collective memory and anthologies. —Carlos Pintado

Ángelo Néstore’s Impure Acts is a pair of full lungs heaving just below the surface of the text. The poems explore and explode inherited notions of gender, desire, & reproduction. The lyric voice is alive and vibrating in these clipped narratives where nostalgia abuts the present & sings there. This is a book to be read aloud & then to read aloud again. Try it with your friends. —Sam Sax