"Other Fugitives and Other Strangers" Book Review

"I unmourn the murdered sissy of my youth,
the sack of discarded pigtails and puckered lips that
burst like an appendix. I hold my scar for the man
who’ll split it open with his gorgeous thumbs, who with his
teeth will liberate the pin-pierced mariposa of my tongue."

-- excerpt from the poem "Of Despots and Deities” by Rigoberto González. Gorgeous writing throughout this beautiful poetry book, Other Fugitives and Other Strangers.

--my book review in today's El Paso Times.

Read some poems from the book on the Tupelo Press website and Poetry Daily.

thanks to J. Navarro for san eli owl photo Feb. 13, 2006






The owl a pang in me all day this Tuesday the 13th, dear messenger a year ago.

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Why is it always about us, what led us to it, love?

The Wind Shifts

Wow! I love María Meléndez's poetry:

"We slip into the continuum
of women destroyed or nearly destroyed,
women who surface in frightening forms
and wreak their stories on shores."

excerpt from "A Secret by Lady Poets" by María Meléndez forthcoming in The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry edited by Francisco Aragón. Read the whole poem here on Sharkforum, in an entry that describes the anthology (my title poem from Solstice here too).
Sharkforum on The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry

Also check out Maria's book How Long She'll Last in the World.

California Poet

If you haven't had a chance to visit poet Robert Vasquez's new blog, California Poet, please do. Also check out his beautifully written book At the Rainbow: Poems. His blog also mentions that he has a chapbook forthcoming from Momotombo Press this year, Braille for the Heart. Looking forward to it. Momotombo Press publishes excellent work, and I enjoy using their chapbooks in my classes.

Here is a note that Robert Vasquez wrote about his blog a few weeks ago:

"Thank you, Emmy, for advertising my blog.

Currently, I hope to draw as much attention as possible to the AWP-sponsored petition to add creative writing to the California Community Colleges' Disciplines List. The state-wide Academic Senate will vote on this matter in April.

But I hope to post other creative writing-related articles in the future as well as promote various writers' works; in addition, I'd like to generate dialogue on other issues that affect Latino/a writers and other writers of color."

His post about the petition states: "Please support this effort to add creative writing to the California Community Colleges state-wide Disciplines List by emailing the Academic Senate before April 2007 via the following address: asccc@ix.netcom.com. And please contact your local community college's representatives to the Academic Senate and urge them to vote for this petition. The tuition-paying community college students minimally deserve appropriately degreed creative writing instructors and nothing less."

photo sept. 2006

Swimming in the gulf...

Where did time hide in the plush mask of your canine head? The love of words not the love of pain. Not the love of crushed.

Where is your heart medium? Luke-warm, unlit wick, spray of perfume. You don’t wear your b.o. on your sleeve--that would be too extraordinary--you ordinary extra in the film about the homeless--bearded and hungry, treating pets loveliest. It’s not a tragedy to the world if you miss your flight to the strawberry festival where the screaming roller coaster zooms above gang fights. It will only be a tragedy to you. Or not.

Why is there no time left to adore each other?

Segundo Barrio Mural Dedication 2/10/07

"While he [Francisco Delgado] was painting the mural, residents often walked up to him and told him stories of the barrio. Children also took notice.

'I'm really glad that it's triggering conversation about history,' Delgado said.

But the real hope, from both Delgado and other advocates for the Segundo Barrio, is that the rest of the city takes notice and does something to prevent the neighborhood from being destroyed through the Downtown Revitalization Plan that was adopted by the city in 2006.

'I think a lot of people have a negative stereotype of the residents of the Segundo Barrio, but that's because of ignorance. If people really went to the area, they would learn that it's a community that's alive, that has families and friends. They would really think differently about any destruction.'"

the above excerpt from an EP Times article 2/4/07 (linked here) about artist Francisco Delgado and the new mural in Segundo Barrio

"Stir It Up" - Bob Marley and the Wailers


also:

"Turn Your Lights Down Low" - Bob Marley (with Lauryn Hill)

also:
"Killing me Softly" - Lauryn Hill (after Roberta Flack). (this one's for Diana, wherever you are, girl. you sang it with soul.)


Click #1 to hear a clip of the original.

Mural Dedication

SACRED HEART MURAL DEDICATION-STREET FESTIVAL: Celebration of Segundo Barrio Culture & History Under Threat of Demolition

Saturday Feb. 10, 2007
12noon – evening
El Paso, Texas
Segundo Barrio
see flyer for schedule of speakers & events

“We held demonstrations whenever we could,” said [Teresa] Sotelo, [UTEP] graduate student in interdisciplinary studies. “We were there with the city council saying this plan doesn’t speak for us. This isn’t our plan. This is a destruction plan; not anything that will actually be fruitful for the local community, for the people that actually live there. Where will they go?"

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“Historians know the value of that [Segundo Barrio] neighborhood and ... we’ve seen the same thing happen so many times in the past 50 years of the evolution of Mexican American communities,” said Paso del Sur founding member and UTEP history professor Dr. Yolanda Leyva. “We’ve been very lucky to have poets, to have artists, to have very creative people affiliated with this group so we could get out the message in many different formats.”

*Quotes from "Student with barrio roots oppose downtown plan" from The Prospector

for more information, visit Paso del Sur

nothing seen...

nothing seen, nothing triggered. emotions triggered galore but nothing seen to trigger the words and imagination except three great kiskadees calling out to each other in tall mesquites. how many are enough? three bold beauties, bright yellow in the late afternoon. I wanted to observe that sound and color in crisp air. but I needed to get away from the surrounding buildings. too much time and good energy wasted on bureaucracy. and the sun down now.

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when new writers fall in love with writing, it is like an erotic awakening with the self, that new awareness of the world. i don’t think that feeling ever goes away when writing what one wants and needs to write. I wonder how people who write 'for a living' feel? surely it's more complicated than the opposite. i’m tempted to type 'I write for a dying' so I type it. how dramatic--I write for a dying! dressed in black and wearing crucifixes gone chic one preteen year in the 80’s thinking that’s daring or sexy even when acutely alone/alive/awake in your bedroom. a zillion leather chola bracelets suddenly on mtv!

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