Invisible Lives chronicles cycles of dysfunction and domestic violence. Using experimental hybrid poetry, Cristalle Smith breaks generational silence in lyric resonance, reflecting on a childhood rife with upheaval and poverty, the invisibility of single motherhood, and the silence of domestic violence. These poems sing memory across divides of time and space, breaking the patterns of absence and denial and challenging what is kept unseen.
Associative leaps chronicle the daughter of a family always on the move. Family secrets thaw in spring mud. Invisible Lives delivers poetic meditations collaged with pop culture and impossibly colliding landscapes. The prairies of Alberta collapse into the sinkholes of northern Florida in a cacophony of lyric layering.
Smith’s fierce and electric voice breaks taboos and challenges the status quo. She sings poor and working class lives, young lives, the lives of mothers, grandmothers, and daughters, the lives of veterans, lives that have endured layers of intersecting trauma and violence. Invisible Lives is an interrogation of power and intimacy that gives a new voice to the people who survive.
Authors
- Pages
- 128
- Published in
- Calgary, CA
- Series
- Brave & Brilliant
Table of Contents
- Front Cover 1
- Half Title Page 2
- Full Title Page 4
- Copyright Page 5
- Dedication 6
- An Alligator Bone for Elaine 12
- Ladybug, Ladybug 18
- Fragments of Ficus 24
- Sinatra on Metal Rivets 35
- Cattails Under the Goodyear Blimp 39
- Caterwaul 43
- Carta marina 51
- 21 Stunning Hairstyles Perfect for Homecoming 53
- Excavation of Ponce de León 56
- Ziploc Goldfish 58
- Sinkhole on Davie BLVD 70
- Foil Salvation 72
- W. Terminus 75
- Fix 77
- Repository 79
- Quaker Lace 80
- Wail II 82
- A Woman Dreams 84
- Franky: A Father in Vignettes 86
- Wail 88
- 31 December 1999 90
- Wail III 101
- I Have to Sleep at Night with a Telephone in My Hand 103
- Six West: Diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos at Kelowna General Hospital 105
- Invisible Lives 107
- Lyric Lab Report 110
- Bibliography 123
- Biography 124
- Series Page 125
- Back Cover 126
