Lidia Torres

        The poems by Lidia Torres collected in The Wind Shifts serve as a bridge between Torres and her audience by exploring the aspects of life that are common to all people. She focuses primarily on writing from the context of a life and culture she appears to be comfortable with, as seen in her easy relation of very culturally unique aspects such as food and music. In "Visiting the Dead" she even indirectly records the recipe for what appears to be a traditional recipe called "sancocho" (a kind of stew). However, it does not appear that she is writing only for those who might be from the same cultural backround as she. While the setting of her poems may be specific, the subject matter of many of her poems touch on human experiences that can be universal. While not every person may be able to resonate with all of the poems, it is likely that at least one in this collection may strike a familiar chord.

        The poem "Three Keys", the first in Torres' collection in The Wind Shifts, sets a somber tone for the rest of the poems. She uses words likeskeleton, ghosts, rusted, scraping, and tapping to emphasize the feeling of mourning and grief. The three keys seem to be symbolic to her of the deceased "three brothers" discussed in the poem and the narrator's attempts to remain connected with her brothers. Torres then balances out the macabre and deathly imagery with the idea of the brothers creating music together by tapping and scraping on different kinds of drums. Although the idea may appear odd, the narrator seems comforted by the music and must experience this combination of beauty and despair in order to connect ("Then we are all / in the same dream, alive and dead"). As she attempts to make sense of grief and the loss of someone dear, Torres builds a bridge to connect with all other people who have had to do the same.

        The piece "Listening for Her" was the poem of Torres' that most deeply resonated with me. Through the use of narrative and reflection, she relates the struggles that can accompany the aging of a parent. Torres focuses on the role reversal that can seem so disturbing initially to a child who must take care of an elder in the way that they once were cared for ("She allows me to move her limbs, / unfold her skin, yielding / like an infant"). Following the initial narrative section of the poem, Torres moves into the narrator's reflection back to her days as a 14-year-old girl and her mother was lively and well. This kind of personal reminiscing forges a pathway not only between the past and the present, but also connecting Torres' past and present with that of anyone else who has been in the same kind of situation.

        Finally, Torres evokes all kinds of sensory imagery with her poem "Two Guavas". Like the other two, this piece narrates the events of a specific day or moment in the narrator's life. The details of the smell of ripe guavas filling a car and a child's trip to an aunt's farm evoke the reader's memories of their own childhood adventures. Often, smells, tastes, and seemingly insignificant visual snapshots (such as noticing a bird in the orchard) are what make childhood memories the most vivid. A memory that may seem inconsequential to one person may be extremely meaningful to another, and may trigger an emotional response that leads to their own memories.