Bearing the Mask: Southwestern Persona Poems: 2 (Poetry of the American Southwest) - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0984039996 ISBN 13: 9780984039999

Publisher: DOS Gatos Press, 2016

Synopsis

From the Foreword:

A unique glimpse at a special region known to some as borderlands, this anthology of persona poems gives articulate voice to the many peoples and periods that have made their mark on this scarred and sacred land of deserts and rivers, Indian petroglyphs and fifty-foot marionettes, haciendas and Air Force bases, this ground so varied in climate and culture but so unified in spirit. The spirit of this terra incognita fits its original definition as "unknown territory," for unknown also implies undefined and therefore unbound, open to interpretation. The reach of these voices is both global and personal. From "Years Following Her Death, Former Texas Slave Silvia King Speaks to a Kidnapped Nigerian Girl" to "Chester Nez Arriving at Guadalcanal, 1942," these are human voices in all their honesty and depth of caring.

The range of voices here is as beautiful and translucent as a rainbow. From Cochise to Calamity Jane, Navajo Code Talkers to Japanese internees, Devil Girl and Old Man Gloom, slaves and stunt pilots, Paiutes and migrant mothers, Annie Oakley and Georgia O'Keeffe, security officers and French tourists, Gregorio Cortez, La Llorona, and Cynthia Ann Parker -- all come to life here, speak their own truths and their own sacred space in these poems. The beauty of their lives shines through in a history that refuses to be erased, voices that refuse to be silenced.

Singular for its balance and its stance against inhumanities like racism and sexism, this anthology keeps a truly holistic perspective on what this region emanates in its spirit, its courage, and its beauty. This is one of the most unique, diverse, and authentically exciting portrayals of the voices of the Southwest I have seen because it has told the many sides of the story and plumbed the many layers of history, taking us beyond our own shallow and thin-voiced prejudices and into the fullness of a rich and powerful harmony of many varied songs of human experience.

Carmen Tafolla, State Poet Laureate of Texas 2015-2016

About this title

About the Authors

Scott Wiggerman's Leaf and Beak: Sonnets, a finalist for the Helen C. Smith Memorial Award for Best Book of Poetry with the Texas Institute of Letters, is preceded by two previous collections - Presence, and Vegetables and Other Relationships. Wiggerman has served as editor of several books, including Wingbeats: Exercises & Practice in Poetry, Lifting the Sky: Southwestern Haiku & Haiga, and Wingbeats II. Recent poems have appeared in Chrysanthemum, Red Earth Review, Frogpond, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Naugatuck River Review, and many other publications. He is co-founder and chief editor for Dos Gatos Press.

Cindy Huyser's chapbook, Burning Number Five: Power Plant Poems, was a co-winner of the 2014 Blue Horse Press Poetry Chapbook contest. Twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize, her poetry has been published in a variety of journals and anthologies, most recently Untameable City, Blue Hole, and the anthology of the 2015 Houston Poetry Festival. Huyser co-edited the Texas Poetry Calendar from 2009 to 2014.

Carmen Tafolla, 2015 State Poet Laureate of Texas, is the author of more than twenty books and a Professor of Transformative Children's Literature at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Tafolla's work has been published in English, Spanish, German, French, and Bengali, and has been recognized by the National Association for Chicano Studies for "giving voice to the peoples and cultures of this land." She has received many recognitions, including the Américas Award, five International Latino Book Awards, and the Art of Peace, for work which contributes to peace, justice, and human understanding.

Edition details

• Publisher: DOS Gatos Press
• Publication date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0984039996
• ISBN 13: 9780984039999
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Wiggerman Scott, Huyser Cindy