Love in a time of belligerence

Love in a Time of Belligerence

To understand human history is to recognize the eternal presence of belligerence. Eileen R. Tabios' Love in a Time of belligerence surfaces a variety of wars and their collateral damage of nature, indigenous culture, pets and infants, democracy, teachers, the poor, even « sex dolls », among others. Such spirals to more losses : innocence, ideals, loyalties, family, and hopes. Love can be an antidote... until it's not. The world presented in Tabios' poetry does not reduce humanity to problem-and-solution - her poetry is one of insistent lucidity, which is an accomplishment on its own when one wants to hide one's eyes from the world.

« Eileen Tabios has been a grand force in U.S. poetry... and it's difficult to think of our own time without acknowledging what a large psychic space she has made for us. The sheer volume of her writing is impressive, like the rivers of Tigris and Euphrates ; among postwar Americans, maybe only Leslie Scalapino, Steve Jonas, Alice Nodey and Lew Ellingham have written so much with such assurance and endless, difficult-made-easy experimentation. »
- Kevin Killian, poet, writer, playwright, critic, editor and Amazon Hall of Fame Reviewer