Caetano

Alexis Almeida

Imagined as a series of experiments in autobiography, Caetano invokes the name of the author’s grandfather to write toward the mystery of family, originals, and their ruptures, breaks, and re-imaginings. Written from distinct positions in time, the poems in this collection think about the (im)possibility of faithful reproduction, the space between an original and its translation, and the moving target of a portrait as it moves through different narrative forms.

'With the intuitive truancy of a child, Alexis Almeida tests autobiography’s boundaries to see what they can hold. Caetano includes not just what actually happens, but also: what never happens, what happens only in dreams and fantasies, and also what happens only in these sentences. And what sentences! Structured by the pull between mother and child, writer and world, moving 'in the way of a feeling,' they carry us along with care, dreamy and sweet. 'Who will see the sentence lighting up' Almeida asks. The answer, dear reader, is you! Lucky you!' – Brian Teare