BOLD is thrilled to host a reading with poets Cindy Williams Gutierrez and Gemma Whelan. Cindy will be reading from her latest poetry collection, *This Tender Geography*, and Gemma Whelan will be reading from Lisa Dart’s collections, *The Bird You Are* and *Even So, This Song*, published by Gemma’s Shangana Press. *This Tender Geography* by Cindy Williams Gutiérrez (2024, FlowerSong Press) This poetry collection explores the tender geography of the primal forces in our lives: of both the power and frailty of familial bonds—“this is where I will find you/ a seemingly endless hole”—and of the body —“Tumors make no sound.” These poems trace the inner journey of a woman who stands on the threshold of elderhood reflecting on the broken and shimmering terrain she has traversed. It is the story of one life, and it is the story of many lives, of anyone who has loved and grieved, erred and forgiven, regretted and resumed, sickened and survived. In the words of National Book Award Winner Craig Santos Perez, “Every page feels like an ocean of emotions breaking open; at the same time, every page is ‘one wing opening.’” *The Bird You Are* “I'd like to be a painter,” writes Lisa Dart in these brief, stunning portraits. Each prose-poem is addressed, epistle-like, to her mother, as though the once strikingly beautiful red-head, now diminished by illness, loss, and age, into a white-haired rarely lucid woman, might explain the inexplicable truths of their entwined and tragic history. A train's evening-lit passing, sheepskin ankle boots with snow melting on their tread, the pulse of an emergency room heart monitor— this lyrical and searing language paints a moving picture of the painful but ultimately loving relationship at the fluttering heart of this collection. *Even So, This Song* Lisa Dart’s courageous and beautifully intense lyric collection gives us a candid and unflinching chronicle of her profound grief following the death of her life partner, the poet Peter…
