Alternative Medicine
In his sixth book of poetry, physician and poet Campo addresses heritage, healing, and memory. He begins by portraying a child’s inner turmoil in “Havana”; then, working nimbly, he illustrates how admiration is expressed by teasing in “Wilhelmina Shakespeare,” the throbbing recognition of God in “New Jersey, the Garden State,” and the simultaneous unreliability and power of memory in “Pronk.” Not only does he use his medical experience to articulate a uniquely tender understanding of those around him, Campo is also able to extract remarkable beauty from the seemingly decrepit. In “Primary Care,” he pleads with the body to “remind us that we suffer . . . / that we must, or else we never lived.” Campo is both concerned for and in love with the soul, the stars, and the infinite possibility of a world as terrifying as it is wondrous. In a style both precise and emotional, playful and earnest, Campo delivers a most extraordinary message: that in writing, in seeing, in remembering, and in being, we embody, simultaneously, the ache as well as the cure. --Briana Shemroske