POETRY

Visitations: Poems

by Julia Alvarez
Knopf. Apr. 2026. 112p. ISBN 9780593805039. $27. POETRY
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In her title poem in this new collection, poet/novelist Alvarez (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents and other novels and books of poetry) writes of visiting a retirement home to talk about and read from her work. She sees her late mother in the blank-faced older women, the women with blue hair, and the residents with perplexed faces, but, as she leaves, she recognizes them as “cardinals ready to fly / from their cardigan call to the budding trees outside, / the snowdrops mocking their winter counterparts…spring about to spring!” The poems in the book are arranged by memories of her childhood, youth, family, and time in the Dominican Republic, then move to her adolescence and college years, first marriage, and her previsions of getting older.
VERDICT Alvarez’s loving and memorable picture-poems provide that necessary spark of joy that will inspire readers to keep going.
Reviewed by Marcia Welsh , Apr 10, 2026
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