Synopsis
Collects two decades of political verse by thirty poets, including Tomas Borge, Clemente Soto Velez, and Marianne Larson
Reviews
Espada, himself a teacher and poet, has gathered the works of 33 poets from the Americas and other continents, including Nicaraguan Ernesto Cardenal, Honduran Roberto Sosa, North American James Scully, Native American Jimmy Santiago Baca and El Salvadoran Roque Dalton, to show the breadth of the political verse published by Curbstone Press in the 19 years since its establishment. The editor employs a broad definition of "political" in mixing poems on war, poverty, racism, starvation and sex discrimination with love poems, portrayals of alcoholism and cries of loneliness. Styles range from the gravity of Cardenal, who calls Nicaragua "a great tomb of martyrs," to the urgency of John Carey, who warns cautious poets that "Someday / The men with / The guns and butter / Will see you from the street, / Tramp up the stairs / To your room, / Strangle you with the / Cord of your caution." Some of the poets forgo craft for the sake of rhetoric, rendering the quality of the collection's poems inconsistent, and the translations from Spanish tend toward clumsiness; Spanish speakers might go to the originals on facing pages for more evocative reading. Strength and integrity, however, unify these writers as they speak passionately on issues common to all countries.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"Poetry, like bread, is for everyone," said El Salvador's Roque Dalton (1935-1975). This unique anthology dedicates itself to that proposition, collecting two decades of political verse by 30 poets, including Tom{ }as Borge of Nicaragua, Puerto Rico's Clemente Soto Vel{‚}ez, Marianne Larson of Denmark, Claribel Alegr{¡}ia of El Salvador, and Jimmy Santiago Baca, Joan Joffe Hall, and Margaret Randall of the U.S. Subjects range from Alegr{¡}ia's "Rivers"--"boiling with the dead"--to Kevin Bowen's recollections of Vietnam; from Dalton contemplating the politics of sex to Juan Felipe Herrera eroticizing the Rodney King riots; from a "Human Interlude" by Jack Hirschmann, which evokes a moment of connection between a street beggar and a passerby, to Eileen Kostiner questioning the politics of political correctness when gazing at her son, her "male face." Whitney Scott
Bilingual when necessary, this collection includes 33 contemporary poets, putting politically conscious North Americans alongside their Latin and Central American counterparts (with two exceptions: Haitian Paul Laraque and Scandinavian Marianne Larsen). Well-known writers, such as Claribel Alegria, Ernesto Cardenal, and Margaret Randall, are interspersed with those relatively obscure. Welcome newcomers include Alfonso Quijada Urias (ironically depicting North American mundanity in a Communist regime) and Vietnam vet Kevin Bowen. This compilation proves that U.S. poets might lack the urgency and need for metaphor of those in a repressive regime but are every bit as capable of making strong political statements. A few prominent North Americans (Adrienne Rich, June Jordan) are not included, but this is still an important, recommended volume. With an introduction by the editor.
- Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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