Described as an “incantatory long poem, [that] draws the reader into a dreamworld where the barrier between life and death grows porous, populated by ancestors and spirits,” Dream of Xibalba by Stephanie Adams-Santos is hard to give a synopsis of. The difficulty risked in the book avoids easy summary. A note in the table of contents provides a clue into this difficulty: “[This is a]poem in twelve parts, as in the hours of a clock. The fragments are untitled; the following are first lines.” The word fragment implies an incomplete nature and a lack of resolution. Read More
