Publications | 2005

Elizabeth Garber’s new collection of poems takes us into a vivid exploration of another year in Maine and begins with the piercing beauty of the landscape in fall and winter as the backdrop to an exploration of aging. These richly compelling poems explore friendships and family, love and loneliness, and the delight of each moment.

At the cusp of spring, she and her fourteen-year-old daughter leave for Buenos Aires and her poems begin to trace with a vibrant poignancy a remarkable mother/daughter journey into Argentine Tango. This section of poems is skillfully translated by Demian Gawainsky into the Spanish of Argentina to incorporate the sound and spirit of the city and the people Elizabeth Garber and her daughter meet and study with.

The poems then tenderly follow the struggle to return to the isolation of Maine and to integrate what she’s learned into her life at home. The poems end with a magical summer week on an island and take us to a deeper listening into time and life. We emerge from this collection with a better understanding that our lives are a dance that we don’t want to miss.

This bilingual collection of poems speaks to those who love Buenos Aires as they follow a beginner’s journey into Tango. These poems were presented November 7, 2005 at Café Tortoni, the literary hub of Buenos Aires, to great appreciation from Argentines for so sensitively understanding their city and dance.

“Impressive was her precise description of "architecture of movement" of the Argentine Tango. Its intensity, its complexity unfolds in the lines of her poetry. In reading "The Panther" she writes, "...this is where you communicate your passion, your presence." Garber got it. This American writer captured the depth and the secrets of the Tango. Bravo!”
—Dawn Michanowicz, director,Tango at the Factory, Worcester, MA

The book of poems is available in 2 versions
U.S. edition:
Listening Inside the Dance: A Life in Maine Infused with Tango
22 bilingual Tango poems sandwiched between poems about life in Maine. Garrison Keillor read her poem “The Best Ex-Husband You Could Ever Ask For” on The Writer’s Almanac on National Public Radio November 9, 2005. Published October 7, 2005, soft cover, 120 pages. Cover paintings by Brita Holmquist and James Strickland. Black and white illustrations by Catlin Sayers Barnes.