“Dixie Salazar’s Altar For Escaped Voices is a haunting collection of poems constructed as domestic altars and poetic retablos dedicated to who and what’s been lost from, or what has “escaped’ beyond, the daily fabric of our lives—the objects, experiences, and individuals of our passage. These poems celebrate the ghosts of our pasts, the struggles of our present, and the uncertain hopes we recklessly claim for our futures.”
—David St. John
“The poems in Dixie Salazar’s Altar For Escaped Voices are ambitious invitations to contemplate her deeply observed world. From Jimson weed to television remotes to lost ancestors, Salazar deftly frames a fast-streaming consciousness collected from the fleeting present and concrete past, aware of the challenge of apprehending this mortal life: “These bones are not / obedient—laughing wildly, nicked on a doorknob white as the skeletall / moon and just as capture-less.””
—Dorianne Laux
“This is where poetry meets art. In Dixie Salazar‘s groupings of altar items, the unholy pairings are often comical and dreadfully sad. These altars are worth a visit, with our hands not in prayer but touching both cheeks in astonishment.”
—Gary Soto
