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Overview
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.
Synopsis
From the Introduction to a Discussion Guide by Hugh Blumenfeld
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.
Review of Poetry Like Bread
"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
"Poetry Like Bread is an engrossing, readable, and highly passionate poetry anthology....It gives us poetry that sustains, that nourishes, and that is available to all. This a book that gives me hope for the futu
Publishers Weekly
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. (Mar.)