Time/Tempo: The Idea of Breath by Laura Cesarco Eglin

Time, in the Western world, is seen as something that must be conquered. It is conceptualized as a problem, one that has to be fought against and defeated by being fast, keeping busy, and producing quantifiable proof that time has been taken advantage of—even fooled. Laura Cesarco Eglin knows that there is not just one way to experience of time, and in her groundbreaking chapbook Time/Tempo: The Idea of Breath she uses poetry as the place to contest commonly accepted ideas on time. Time/Tempo places importance on language in shaping our conceptions and actions. Tempo, as well as a particular rhythm, means time in Portuguese: We translate our rhythm and experiences of time in society. Time as breathing, time as pause, time as memory, and how the present is part of the past, death as part of being alive, time as important, time as a factor in relationships, time as a partner, time as language, and time as part and parcel of who we are.