Tag sketch

* happy crow-lidays via claribel alegria

José Angel Araguz Leave a comment

Ars Poetica – Claribel Alegria

I,
poet by trade,
condemned so many times
to be a crow,
would never change places
with the Venus de Milo:
while she reigns in the Louvre
and dies of boredom
and collects dust
I discover the sun
each morning
and amid valleys
volcanoes
and debris of war
I catch sight of the promised land.

crow

Keeping it short this week with this favorite from Claribel Alegria. The directness of the lyric, how it dives straight into its metaphor and subverts the jab of “crow” into something powerful, never fails to give me hope and animo.

Also, any excuse to sketch up a crow, no?

I wish everyone a safe holiday!

Stay tuned for the End of Year Reading next week in which I’ll share audio excerpts from Everything We Think We Hear (available on Amazon )!

Happy discovering!

José

 

* tanka, update, & news

José Angel Araguz Leave a comment

after the discharge orders
we idle
at a stop sign
I haven’t heard
the birds til now

— Jose Angel Araguz

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Just a quick post to update on life as well as to share news of a sale.

Update: I am happy to report that I was discharged from the hospital Friday afternoon and have been recuperating nicely. I even taught yesterday. I made sure to tell my students that I was happy to be in front of them again.

Thank you to everyone who helped me get through the difficult week/weekend. All the kind words and ‘likes’ of my previous post meant a lot to me.

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Sale: Just got word from Flutter Press editor Sandy Benitez that all FP titles are on sale at 40% off including my own Corpus Christi Octaves.

This is significant on two levels: 1.) It’s the first time a chapbook of mine has been on “sale” (eek!), and 2.) This month marks the one year anniversary of Corpus Christi Octaves and the three year anniversary of my first chapbook The Wall.

I plan on sharing some readings from my recent trip to Texas to celebrate later this month. For now, check out the Flutter Press sale – including chaps by Dale Wisely, Howie Good, and Rachel Adams – here. 

The sale ends on July 13th.

*

See you this Friday!

Jose