Born on the island of Flores, between Europe and the United States, Pedro da Silveira captures the islander’s longing to venture out to the West, leading to departure and an inevitable return. These fresh and original poems, now available for the first time in English in this bilingual edition, express a deep connection to place, particularly, the insular world of the mid-Atlantic islands of the Azores. In Poems in Absentia & Poems from The Island and the World, we find yearning, hope, and loss in equal measure. In plain and direct language, searing with irony, we experience the emotions of dreaming and diminution, as well as the discovery of illusions.