My South by Southwest (Paperback)

If you've never been to Texas before, you might feel you have after reading My South By Southwest. It's better than a Lonely Planet Guide in that the poet marks every locale with personal references. You learn more about Texas than if you went there. It preserves the past without sinking into nostalgia. It's a gritty description of a poet's love of a place that is gone, except in her memory and images. It shows the reader how the land intersects with life. The poet has a visual sense, shifting from the personal to the landscape, like a city scene and a still life merged together. She proves that borders are just a state of mind.