Book Reviews:

Open-Hearted Horizon, An Albuquerque Poetry Anthology

Edited by Valerie Martínez and Shelle VanEtten de Sánchez Albuquerque Poet Laureate Series

Published by: University of New Mexico Press, 2024

This fine collection of some of New Mexico’s great array of poets—including works by our plethora of poet laureates and other poets not so famed yet whose work is equally impressive-- is sure to please. Arranged topically, the poems strike many emotional and ecological notes.

Among the selections are Ryan M. Stark’s “In a House on Candelaria Road” which summons the memory of when Doors singer Jim Morrison lived in Albuquerque: “There is wonderworking here/for the ghost tourists... As if Jim in five year old form/Was crowned the Lizard King right here.”

Then there is a poignant pandemic-time observation in “In Bernalillo, A Blessing” by Jules Nyquist: “We won’t be gathering for brunch this year/the road sign on the way down says/Stay Safe, Social Distance, Shop Alone/even the casinos are closed”

And Bill O’Neill gives us a glimpse of the sadly ironic plight of the unhoused surviving in the midst of Albuquerque’s prosperity:

“the same broken families with their helpless/ progeny finding the home of their street . . . . the beaming couples holding their newborns like collateral”

Mark Fleisher in “Morning Blessing” also observes “Homeless streaming themselves/ to St. Martin’s welcoming gate/for a shot of hope and faith”.

And on a brighter note, Adelio Lechuga-Kanapilly in “Burque” declares, “Our community/The one we’ve had since forever/The one we make our own/A place for new beginnings/A place to preserve the historic/We are not a place to end”

Delightful variety! https://www.unmpress.com/9780826366214/ open-hearted-horizon/?fbclid=IwAR0Iv9Vvc-J5_ ym505jlr4t81GunL6zFH3DP4LnhmMQBxlEaFiNqr42mGEo

Susto, poems. By Tommy Archuleta

Colorado State University, 2023

This debut collection by the recently-appointed Poet Laureate of Santa Fe, Tommy Archuleta, is a hymn to the glorious and painful history of Northern New Mexico, viewed through a highly personal focus. The title Susto can be translated in English as “fright”, “shock” or, as Archuleta suggests in this book, “magical fight”. Like Archuleta’s brilliant but enigmatic poetry, the word is evocative and open to varied interpretations and responses.

This intriguing collection of verse is a deep dive into the mystery of grief, and into the realities of life lived despite grief and including grief. I know something of that experience myself and I am touched by how deftly—and gradually in these pages—Tommy Archuleta reveals and shares that experience. A bold and courageous accomplishment.

And then, having shared the awful knowledge of the deepest grief, this poet offers hope, and remedio, or healing—significantly linked to the medicinal properties of native New Mexico plants, known to our region’s traditional curanderismo..

The focus of the poet’s grief is the 2013 death of his beloved mother, as we eventually (but not immediately) learn as we read through these poems and the poet’s generous afterword. The covid illness experience that Archuleta and his father shared also helped this poet discover a great truth. He states it thus, “To love deeply is to grieve deeply.”

This is a book to be read and re-read, as doing so enhances the impact of Tommy Archuleta’s profoundly unsettling, yet ultimately comforting, poetic journey contained herein. Archuleta writes, “the darker/life becomes the more you//find forms/of silence// you never/before knew existed.”

Powèt Nan Pò A / Poet of the Port

Indran Amirthanayagam Madhat, Inc., 2023

Haiti is in crisis but Haiti lives and will live. That is the message here. Poems in the Haitian Creole language (Kreyòl ayisyen) written by a former US diplomat who was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and who spent much time in the very troubled-- yet very beautiful-land of Haiti. The poet has translated his poems into English in this volume, and so we are given a window into the magnificently radical vision which he as a loving observer has found in the people and culture of Haiti, so little known to outsiders until the publication of this most important new book. Here are some verses from this wondrous volume: My idea is not complicated, dear foreigner.

Haiti is the center of the universe and Creole the official language for all authorities,

United Nations, International Criminal Court, for all kinds of crimes, and NASA as well because, as you surmise, to fight future wars we will need codes that not everybody knows… which is why I am leaving Creole with you—your call —as code language, to explore space, for new commands in war, dearest Haiti. Great country, center of my head.

Borderless: Poems, Essays & Drawings for a New Mind

Vjali Hamilton

World Wheel Press www.WorldWheel.org , 2023

Santa Fe-based poet, artist, musician and film maker has given us a beautiful collection of heartfelt lyric verse and drawings, each a contribution to the eternal quest fcr peace, both worldly and spiritual. Here’s a taste: “I want to be a Naga with no clothes but wearing sacred ash letting hair grow long to touch the ground as I sit by my sacred fire . . . “Aspiring to peace and inspirational, this book is a rare full treat of a delicious meal for the eyes and the ears and the mind.

You Dreamed of Empires

Alvaro Enrigue, translated to English by Natasha Wimmer Riverhead Books, 2024

This is more a prose- poem than a novel per se and it is brilliantly so realized. A personalized and at times re-imagined or alt-historical telling of the fateful day in 1519 when the Spanish invader Cortes met the “Aztec” emperor Moctezuma and the princess-translator El Maliinche in Tenochtilan, the great city which later became Mexico City. While this novel does remind me of Atomik Azteks, another great novel, it is in a league of its own. Much mystery, blood and psychedelics. And, as Neal Young sang, it’s a story of a Killer and a dreaming ruler. And after reading it I am not certain which or whose dream WE actually are in. But hey please read it. You will enjoy the trip. Beautifully written with a fine sense of the magic of languages.