Poetry Like Bread, New Expanded Edition: Poets of the Political Imagination from Curbstone Press
edited by Martín Espada
Northwestern University Press, 2000 Paper: 978-1-880684-74-0 Library of Congress Classification PN6110.P728P64 2000 Dewey Decimal Classification 808.81935809045
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Poetry Like Bread contains poems by nearly forty poets published by the Curbstone Press during the last twenty years. These poets are probably unlike any you have studied. Their engagement with everyday political and economic realities is as direct as a newspaper, their language as familiar as conversation. Their motto, taken from Roque Dalton for the title of the collection, is that "poetry, like bread, is for everyone."
These poems were not written to be studied. They were meant to be read. Or better yet, heard. Whole or in part. Alone or among friends and strangers. Reading and hearing them, you must respond and react. Some may inspire you, knock the wind out of you—make you indignant, sad, joyous, ashamed. Whether you drop this book, seek out others, join a social action group, write letters to your elected representatives, or write poems of your own, your reaction to the poems will be as political as the poems themselves.
Some of the subjects of these poems may be unfamiliar to you, or very familiar to you. Many relate stories from war-torn Central and South America, where U. S. policy has had a huge impact on people's lives. The rest are the voices of the voiceless here in the U.S: Latinos and African Americans, Vietnam veterans and Vietnamese, prison inmates, blue collar workers, migrant workers, women, the homeless. It's the poet's job to open up and validate these worlds to us. Our job, once roused, is to learn. To learn and to act.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
MARTÍN ESPADA, born in Brooklyn in 1957, has been called the Latino poet of his generation. The author of fourteen collections of poetry, he is also an editor, essayist, and translator. He is currently a professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst.
REVIEWS
"Strength and integrity...unify these writers as they speak passionately onissues common to all countries." —Publishers Weekly
— -
"The poems here are full of surprises, grand themes grounded in the painful and triumphant particulars of each poet's life." —The Nation
— -
"These are poems not so much of witness and survival as of defiance and resistance." —The Progressive
— -
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Prefatory Note
Menchú,
Rigoberta
Dedicatory Poem
Menchú,
Rigoberta
Patria abnegada
My Martyred Homeland
Foreword
Espada,
Martín
Claribel Alegría
Ars Poética
Ars Poetica
Visitas nocturnas
Nocturnal Visits
Los ríos
The Rivers
Carmen Bomba
Carmen Bomba: Poet
Desde el puente
From the Bridge
Doug Anderson
Blues for Unemployed Mercenaries
The Torturer's Apprentice
Colonial Album
Town Meeting
Naomi Ayala
Poverty
Lawns
Sweeping
The Night I Walk into Town
Jimmy Santiago Baca
What's Happening
I Applied for the Board
Who Understands Me But Me
Ah Rain!
Steel Doors of Prison
Gioconda Belli
La sangre de otros
The Blood of Others
In Memoriam
In Memoriam
Conjunción
Conjunction
Kevin Bowen
Incoming
Playing Basketball with the Viet Cong
Gelatin Factory
In the Village of Yen So
Banking Lesson, 1970
Ferruccio Brugnaro
Non Vedra Mai Piu Forse
Maybe He'll Never See Again
Non Ditemi Di Non Disturbarvi
Don't Tell Me Not To Bother You
Julia de Burgos
A Julia de Burgos
To Julia de Burgos
Las voces de los muertos
The Voices of the Dead
Ernesto Cardenal
Ecología
Ecology
Las loras
The Parrots
Las campesinas del Cuá
The Peasant Women from Cuá
John Carey
Hartford Daylight
To a Cautious Poet
Otto René Castillo
Frente al balance, mañana
Before the Scales, Tomorrow
Intelectuales apoliticos
Apolitical Intellectuals
Vámonos patria a caminar
Let's Go, Country
Leo Connellan
Amelia, Mrs. Brooks of My Old Childhood
Roque Dalton
Para un mejor amor
Toward a Better Love
Como tú
Like You
Sobre el negocio bíblico
On Biblical Business
La certeza
The Certainty
Nguyen Duy
Đất Đo–Núớc Xanh
Red Earth–Blue Water
Buổi Sang Sau Chiến Tranh
The Morning After the War Was Over
Đò Lèn
DoLen
Martín Espada
La tumba de Buenaventura Roig
La tumba de Buenaventura Roig
Federico's Ghost
El fantasma de Federico
Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits
Por fin renuncia Jorge el conserje de la iglesia
Don Gordon
The Scientist
Neighborhood Watch
Sea of Tranquility
Maketa Groves
At Saint Anthony's
For Pablo Neruda
Joan Joffe Hall
Among The Yurok
Juan Felipe Herrera
9:40pm
3:45am
Jack Hirschman
Human Interlude
In Memoriam, Ray Thompson (1943–1990)
Undone Day
Haiti
This Neruda Earth
Efraín Huerta
Desconcierto
Confusion
Despliegue de asombros ante un dios
Unfurling of Amazements Before God
Teresa de Jesús
De repente
All of a Sudden
Refranes
Proverbs
Eileen Kostiner
Blood Knot
Mastectomy
Paul Laraque
Le nageur noir traverse les profondeurs bleues
a black swimmer crosses blue depths of underwater
Le grand guignol du pays ou Le pays du grand guignol
The Grand Guignol of Countries or Country of The Grand Guignol
Marianne Larsen
The Meadow
Cash Register
Ordinary Human Arms
Devorah Major
fillmo'e street woman
Sarah Menefee
the blood of Colorado miners
you northamerican poets
there will be a time
maybe because I stand behind
Sara Miles
Histories: Part I Europe and America
Histories: Part II The New World
Victor Montejo
El perro
The Dog
Leroy V. Quintana
Poem for Our Dog Afraid of Thunder on a Rainy Day
Poem for U-Haul
Sharks
Etymology: Chicano
What It Was Like
Margaret Randall
The Gloves
Immigration Law
Luis J. Rodríguez
Then Comes a Day
The Concrete River
The Blast Furnace
Carrying My Tools
Leonel Rugama
La tierra es un satélite de la luna
The Earth is a Satellite of the Moon
Cheryl Savageau
Medicine Woman
Looking For Indians
Hanging Clothes In The Sun
Department of Labor Haiku
Why They Do It
Richard Schaaf
My Daddy's Tattoo
The Prisoners
James Scully
Now Sing
The Day of the Night
Toque de Queda
Susan Sherman
First and Last Poems
Edgar Gabriel Silex
Grandfather Buffalo
Postcard
Blue Cloud Rides Horses
William Jay Smith
The Pumpkin Field
The Burning of Malmaison, iii (excerpt)
Roberto Sosa
Los pesares juntos
The Common Grief
Recuerdos número 1-2
Memories Numbers 1-2
Alfonso Quijada Urías
Envío
Dispatch
Las tías
The Aunts
Pobres de nosostros
Poor Us
Asesinato del campeón de polo
Assassination of the Polo Champ
Clemente Soto Vélez
#3 de Caballo de palo
#3 from The Wooden Horse
#4 de Caballo de palo
#4 from The Wooden Horse
#35 de La tierra prometida
#35 from The Promised Land
Tino Villanueva
Scene from the Movie GIANT
The Existence of Sarge
Fight Scene Beginning
Fight Scene, Part II
Fight Scene: Final Frames
Daisy Zamora
Era una escuadra desperdigada
It Was a Ragged Squadron
Querida tía Chofi
Dear Aunt Chofi
Precisamente
Precisely
Biographical Notes
Reading Guide: A Companion for Readers
Blumenfeld,
Hugh
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
Poetry Like Bread, New Expanded Edition: Poets of the Political Imagination from Curbstone Press
edited by Martín Espada
Northwestern University Press, 2000 Paper: 978-1-880684-74-0
Poetry Like Bread contains poems by nearly forty poets published by the Curbstone Press during the last twenty years. These poets are probably unlike any you have studied. Their engagement with everyday political and economic realities is as direct as a newspaper, their language as familiar as conversation. Their motto, taken from Roque Dalton for the title of the collection, is that "poetry, like bread, is for everyone."
These poems were not written to be studied. They were meant to be read. Or better yet, heard. Whole or in part. Alone or among friends and strangers. Reading and hearing them, you must respond and react. Some may inspire you, knock the wind out of you—make you indignant, sad, joyous, ashamed. Whether you drop this book, seek out others, join a social action group, write letters to your elected representatives, or write poems of your own, your reaction to the poems will be as political as the poems themselves.
Some of the subjects of these poems may be unfamiliar to you, or very familiar to you. Many relate stories from war-torn Central and South America, where U. S. policy has had a huge impact on people's lives. The rest are the voices of the voiceless here in the U.S: Latinos and African Americans, Vietnam veterans and Vietnamese, prison inmates, blue collar workers, migrant workers, women, the homeless. It's the poet's job to open up and validate these worlds to us. Our job, once roused, is to learn. To learn and to act.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
MARTÍN ESPADA, born in Brooklyn in 1957, has been called the Latino poet of his generation. The author of fourteen collections of poetry, he is also an editor, essayist, and translator. He is currently a professor in the Department of English at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst.
REVIEWS
"Strength and integrity...unify these writers as they speak passionately onissues common to all countries." —Publishers Weekly
— -
"The poems here are full of surprises, grand themes grounded in the painful and triumphant particulars of each poet's life." —The Nation
— -
"These are poems not so much of witness and survival as of defiance and resistance." —The Progressive
— -
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Prefatory Note
Menchú,
Rigoberta
Dedicatory Poem
Menchú,
Rigoberta
Patria abnegada
My Martyred Homeland
Foreword
Espada,
Martín
Claribel Alegría
Ars Poética
Ars Poetica
Visitas nocturnas
Nocturnal Visits
Los ríos
The Rivers
Carmen Bomba
Carmen Bomba: Poet
Desde el puente
From the Bridge
Doug Anderson
Blues for Unemployed Mercenaries
The Torturer's Apprentice
Colonial Album
Town Meeting
Naomi Ayala
Poverty
Lawns
Sweeping
The Night I Walk into Town
Jimmy Santiago Baca
What's Happening
I Applied for the Board
Who Understands Me But Me
Ah Rain!
Steel Doors of Prison
Gioconda Belli
La sangre de otros
The Blood of Others
In Memoriam
In Memoriam
Conjunción
Conjunction
Kevin Bowen
Incoming
Playing Basketball with the Viet Cong
Gelatin Factory
In the Village of Yen So
Banking Lesson, 1970
Ferruccio Brugnaro
Non Vedra Mai Piu Forse
Maybe He'll Never See Again
Non Ditemi Di Non Disturbarvi
Don't Tell Me Not To Bother You
Julia de Burgos
A Julia de Burgos
To Julia de Burgos
Las voces de los muertos
The Voices of the Dead
Ernesto Cardenal
Ecología
Ecology
Las loras
The Parrots
Las campesinas del Cuá
The Peasant Women from Cuá
John Carey
Hartford Daylight
To a Cautious Poet
Otto René Castillo
Frente al balance, mañana
Before the Scales, Tomorrow
Intelectuales apoliticos
Apolitical Intellectuals
Vámonos patria a caminar
Let's Go, Country
Leo Connellan
Amelia, Mrs. Brooks of My Old Childhood
Roque Dalton
Para un mejor amor
Toward a Better Love
Como tú
Like You
Sobre el negocio bíblico
On Biblical Business
La certeza
The Certainty
Nguyen Duy
Đất Đo–Núớc Xanh
Red Earth–Blue Water
Buổi Sang Sau Chiến Tranh
The Morning After the War Was Over
Đò Lèn
DoLen
Martín Espada
La tumba de Buenaventura Roig
La tumba de Buenaventura Roig
Federico's Ghost
El fantasma de Federico
Jorge the Church Janitor Finally Quits
Por fin renuncia Jorge el conserje de la iglesia
Don Gordon
The Scientist
Neighborhood Watch
Sea of Tranquility
Maketa Groves
At Saint Anthony's
For Pablo Neruda
Joan Joffe Hall
Among The Yurok
Juan Felipe Herrera
9:40pm
3:45am
Jack Hirschman
Human Interlude
In Memoriam, Ray Thompson (1943–1990)
Undone Day
Haiti
This Neruda Earth
Efraín Huerta
Desconcierto
Confusion
Despliegue de asombros ante un dios
Unfurling of Amazements Before God
Teresa de Jesús
De repente
All of a Sudden
Refranes
Proverbs
Eileen Kostiner
Blood Knot
Mastectomy
Paul Laraque
Le nageur noir traverse les profondeurs bleues
a black swimmer crosses blue depths of underwater
Le grand guignol du pays ou Le pays du grand guignol
The Grand Guignol of Countries or Country of The Grand Guignol
Marianne Larsen
The Meadow
Cash Register
Ordinary Human Arms
Devorah Major
fillmo'e street woman
Sarah Menefee
the blood of Colorado miners
you northamerican poets
there will be a time
maybe because I stand behind
Sara Miles
Histories: Part I Europe and America
Histories: Part II The New World
Victor Montejo
El perro
The Dog
Leroy V. Quintana
Poem for Our Dog Afraid of Thunder on a Rainy Day
Poem for U-Haul
Sharks
Etymology: Chicano
What It Was Like
Margaret Randall
The Gloves
Immigration Law
Luis J. Rodríguez
Then Comes a Day
The Concrete River
The Blast Furnace
Carrying My Tools
Leonel Rugama
La tierra es un satélite de la luna
The Earth is a Satellite of the Moon
Cheryl Savageau
Medicine Woman
Looking For Indians
Hanging Clothes In The Sun
Department of Labor Haiku
Why They Do It
Richard Schaaf
My Daddy's Tattoo
The Prisoners
James Scully
Now Sing
The Day of the Night
Toque de Queda
Susan Sherman
First and Last Poems
Edgar Gabriel Silex
Grandfather Buffalo
Postcard
Blue Cloud Rides Horses
William Jay Smith
The Pumpkin Field
The Burning of Malmaison, iii (excerpt)
Roberto Sosa
Los pesares juntos
The Common Grief
Recuerdos número 1-2
Memories Numbers 1-2
Alfonso Quijada Urías
Envío
Dispatch
Las tías
The Aunts
Pobres de nosostros
Poor Us
Asesinato del campeón de polo
Assassination of the Polo Champ
Clemente Soto Vélez
#3 de Caballo de palo
#3 from The Wooden Horse
#4 de Caballo de palo
#4 from The Wooden Horse
#35 de La tierra prometida
#35 from The Promised Land
Tino Villanueva
Scene from the Movie GIANT
The Existence of Sarge
Fight Scene Beginning
Fight Scene, Part II
Fight Scene: Final Frames
Daisy Zamora
Era una escuadra desperdigada
It Was a Ragged Squadron
Querida tía Chofi
Dear Aunt Chofi
Precisamente
Precisely
Biographical Notes
Reading Guide: A Companion for Readers
Blumenfeld,
Hugh
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE