Book excerpt: Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies. Maria Luisa Arroyo's GATHERING WORDS/RECOGIENDO PALABRAS gives a voice to the oppressed, the abused, and the forgotten. It speaks from battered women's shelters and from inside homes that hide domestic violence and child abuse. Laying bare the stark realities of life with phrases that are alternately elegant, blunt, and rich with vivid imagery, Arroyo writes with spine-tingling candor that does not allow us to deny the truth. Shaped by her family's background in Puerto Rican music, her poems, written mostly in English, are reminiscent of folksongs with their narrative storytelling and activist representation of the disenfranchised, disillusioned, and neglected. This is Arroyo's first full-length collection of poems.