O Cadoiro is an astonishing exploration of lyricism by one of our greatest poets, best known in recent years for her challenging experimental work. But where experimental poets often disdain lyric, Moure embraces it, revelling in its beauty and its radical modernity. Rooted in medieval Galician-Portuguese cantigas, her poems in O Cadoiro are a breathtaking passage through archive, rhythm, address, and the mystery and wound of authorship itself.


From the author's postface: O cadoiro is, literally, the place where falling is made. In Galician, cadoiro is one word for waterfall. Cataract, perhaps. Thus, the fall. This to me is the place of poetry, for whoever writes poetry must be prepared, ever, to fall.


The postface to O Cadoiro is freely downloadable via a link on Erín Moure’s website at https://erinmoure.mystrikingly.com. It is not printed in the book.