Imperfect Tense

Imperfect Tense is a meditation on language, and the poems in this debut collection are grounded in teaching, learning, and living between languages and cultures. Much like the imported "dragon fruit," these poems grasp displacement as opportunity; they relish in perpetual outsider-ness as a way inside a fundamentally shared human condition. The first section of three, "Imperfect Tense" is a specific meditation on Americans' pursuits of Spanish as a second language. "Past Tense" revolves around experiences as an English language and poetry teacher working with immigrant communities. Finally, "Ever Present Tense" is a meditation on the language of family.