The Wind Shifts: New Latino Poetry Book

Foreword   Juan Felipe Herrera     xiii
Preface     xviii
Introduction     1   Rosa Alcala
Cante Grande     12
The Silversmith's Wife & the Chestnut Vendor     13
Migration     14
Class     15
The Sixth Avenue Go-Go Lounge     17
Patria     19   Francisco Aragon
Cafe Central     23
Lunch Break     24
Bridge over Strawberry Creek     24
Ernesto Cardenal in Berkeley     25
Poem with Citations from the O.E.D.     26
Portrait with Lines of Montale     27
Grid     28
Far Away     29
Al Viejo Mundo     30   Naomi Ayala
Papo, Who'd Wanted to Be an Artist     33
It Was Late and She Was Climbing     34
This Breathless Minute     34
My Brother Pito     35
For "S"     36
Hole     37
Within Me     37
Thus     38
Griot     39
Horses     40   Richard Blanco
Mother Picking Produce     42
Shaving     42
Varadero en Alba     43
Chilo's Daughters Sing for Me in Cuba     45
What Is Not Mine     46
Crossing Boston Harbor     46
Mexican Almuerzo in New England     47
Time as Art in The Eternal City     48
In Defense of Livorno     49
Somewhere to Paris     50   Brenda Cardenas
Empty Spaces     53
Report from the Temple of Confessions in Old Chicano English     53
Cartoon Coyote Goes Po-Mo     54
from Sound Waves: A Series     55
Medicine     57
Our Language     59
Song     61   Albino Carrillo
De las Mujeres Tristes     63
Animal Time     63
La Invencion del Televisor Segun Huitzilopochtli     64
H. Writes His Dead Amigos for the Sake of Clarity     64
Lament for the chilero from Las Cruces     65   Steven Cordova
Testing Positive     72
Sissy Boy     72
Across a Table     73
Meditations on the Jordaan     74
Daydream to You     74
In Your Defense     75
Pecking Orders     76
Of Sorts      77
At the Delacourt     78
Driving toward Lake Superior     79   Eduardo C. Corral
Night Gives to Things the Turning Beauty of Leaves     81
Ditat Deus     82
There Is a Light that Never Goes Out     82
Pear     83
To a Mojado Who Died Crossing the Desert     84
Monologue of a Vulture's Shadow     85
Midnight Coffee: Rafael Rodriguez Rapun, 1936     86
Julio Galan: Misael: Oil, Acrylic, Mixed Media on Canvas, 2001     86
Poem after Frida Kahlo's Painting The Broken Column     87   David Dominguez
Pig     91
Fingers     91
Mexicali     92
Empty Lot     93
Framework     94
Roof     95
Chicago Title     96
Cowboy     97
Elwood     98   John Olivares Espinoza
Aching Knees in Palm Springs     101
Contemporary American Hunger     102
Learning Economics at Gemco     103
Las Cucarachas     104
The City of Date Fruits and Bullet Wounds     105
The Story My Grandfather Told My Mother a Few Months before His Death     107
I Go Dreaming, Raking Leaves     108
Network of Bone     109   Gina Franco
Everything Goes Down a Changeling     112
Darkling     112
Velvet     113
These Years, in the Deepest Holes     115
The Walk Like Old Habits     116
The Earth Without     118   Venessa Maria Engel-Fuentes
Cebolla     123
Como Park, 1975     124
Hermanita, Hermanota     124
Unit 502     126
Glass Grapes     126
Record-Keeping     127
Funeral     128
Pinkie     129
Insomnia     130   Kevin A. Gonzalez
The Night Tito Trinidad KO'ed Fernando Vargas     132
Cultural Stakes; or, How to Learn English as a Second Language     133
Cultural Stud     136
The Night Bernard Hopkins KO'ed Tito Trinidad     138
To Roberto Clemente     139
Cultural Silence; or. How to Survive the Last American Colony     139   David Hernandez
Dysfunctional     142
Exploded View     143
Wile E. Coyote Attains Nirvana     144
Dog with Elizabethan Collar     145
Ropes      146
Suburban Story     146
Whitman Dying     147
St. Mary's Hospital     148
Man on an Island     149
Dear Spanish     150   Scott Inguito
Guadalupe Beach     152
Main Street     154
Papa George     154
Parade     156
Bats Trace Their Droppings Painting Words     159
I Have Been Resisting, Due to Bad Knees, 'Falling into the Work of the Living'     160   Sheryl Luna
Her Back, My Bridge     163
Slow Dancing with Frank Perez     164
Learning to Speak     165
Two Girls from Juarez     166
Poesia de Maquiladora     167
Pity the Drowned Horses     168
An Atheist Learns to Pray     169
The Colt     170   Carl Marcum
We Drove Some Chevys     172
Barrio Brisbane Gives Witness     176
First Snow     178
Notes from the Art Institute     179   Maria Melendez
Remedio     181
In Birute's Camp     182
Nude Sonnet     183
Tonacacihuatl: Lady of Our Flesh     184
An Illustrated Guide to Things Unseen     185
A Secret Between Lady Poets     186
Has it been whispered all along?     188   Carolina Monsivais
Writing the Circle of My Life by Remembering My Great-Grandmother     191
What I Remember about Almost Drowning in a Lake Somewhere in Kentucky     192
Early Signs     192
How the Eye Works     193
Phone Intake     194
The Interpreter     195
Granada     195
Seasons of Writing     197
From Houston Back to El Paso     198
The Funeral     199   Adela Najarro
San Francisco     201
My Mother, Sex, and Dating     202
Throughout New York City     203
Between Two Languages     205
Playing around Cesar Vallejo     206
My Mother's High Heel Shoes     207   Urayoan Noel
Ballade of a Boy     210
Kool Logic     211
Barrio Speedwagon Blues     213
Death and Taxes     215
Cave Painter Blues     216   Deborah Paredez
Stella     218
Mobile, Alabama, 1963     218
The Gift, Uruguay, 1970      219
Sonnet for Rilke in February     220
The Fire     221
The Trumpets Raised     222
Avocados     223
The Early March     224
Nostos     225   Emmy Perez
Solstice     227
Irrigation     227
When Evening Becomes Stellar     228
One Morning     229
Swimming     230
La Aurora     231
Ars Poetica     231
History of Silence     232   Paul Martinez Pompa
How to Hear Chicago     237
After Words     237
Busted Lullaby     238
3 Little Pigs     238
Police Dog     239
Night     239
Want     240
Bones     241
While Late Capitalism     242
Nightshift     242   Lidia Torres
Three Keys     245
Visiting the Dead     246
Listening for Her     246
Two Guavas     247
A Weakness for Boleros     248
Daphne as a Drum     249
Spirit Boat     250
Adrift     251
Poema en un carro publico      251
Blackout     252
About the Contributors     254
Further Reading     261
Acknowledgments     262
Source Notes     263