Three Lake Chapala poets have devoted much of their talent to sharing their love of life in Mexico. Each writes in a very different style, but each manages to capture in his vignettes of daily life not only images familiar to anyone who lives here, but a sense of place that escapes the camera lens. These poets manage to say what we often feel about what we see Mexico, but are unable to express.
Three of Bill Frayer’s four volumes of poetry are devoted almost exclusively to this pursuit, and here are excerpts from each:
Mexican Street (from Migration)
Living in the heat
of the Mexican street
I step out into the sun
and smell the carnitas
and peanuts roasting.
and Rosa, Rosa next door
who sells her botanas every night
and watches my basura
every morning
keeping the dogs away,
stands smiling
with her missing teeth
and greasy apron,
but always smiling…
Foreigner Walking (from Sacred Lake)
As I navigate the uneven stones
Of our Rio Zula
Past a dark-skinned boy
Drinking Coke and mixing sad
Into cement. “Hola,” I offer.
And he responds more lyrically.
Mangos fallen to the street
In the overnight rain
A flat-face madre
Picks them up, bruised and unripe alike
Into a faded nylon mesh bag.
Another beautiful “Buenos Dias”
Enunciated slowly, carefully
With a slight smile…
Agave Blood (from Agave Blood)
I watch as they squeeze
The baked agave heart
To extract the sweet nectar
Which will become
A fine anejo
How did the Aztecs discover
The secret of this blue cactus
Which would blunt their senses
Perhaps, and make sense
Of their blood sacrifice?
For this tequila os
The story of all Mexico,
The beauty and the tragedy.
Find these three books and others by Bill – along with his reviews – here on Amazon.
John Thomas Dodds has written novels and children’s books, but poetry is most prominent among his body of work.
In A Stroll Through The Village of Ajijic, he devotes an entire volume to loving verses about his adopted home.
… I am captured under the delicate brilliance of a canopy of bougainvillea the color of my lovers’ lips.
Momentarily and alien on another planet.
Nothing grows that seemingly hasn’t been here forever, with a fragrance of life so delightful as to buffer the external myth of having been trapped in a never ending ascension of regret.
Find this book and others by John – along with his reviews – here on Amazon.
The late James Tipton introduced many local poets to the short form verse of Japanese tanka, and his book Washing Dishes In The Ancient Village packs deep insight into a sparse and meticulously crafted phrases. Here are four selections:
Behind the barred window
the proud mother
holds up her laughing baby
The cart hauling hay
for the horse
pulling the cart
Dirt road at dusk
everything alive whispers
slow down
So close to Heaven
we could smell
the empanadas!
Find this book and others by Jim – along with his reviews – here on Amazon.
Check out the complete listing of RiberasAuthors by genre here.
Posted by Antonio Ramblés