We Had Our Reasons: Poems by Ricardo Ruiz and Other Hard-Working Mexicans from Eastern Washington —by Ricardo Ruiz and others

 Publisher: Pulley Press

May 3, 2022

Paperback: 212 pages

ISBN: 979-898526320

English & Spanish

Cost at time of review: $18.00

5 Stars

 

I do not often read a book that in my opinion should be mandatory reading and with discussion prior to receiving a high school diploma. This is one of those books. (The other three are: The Absolutly True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie; Caste: The Origins of our Discontent by Isabel Wilkerson; and, Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm). Too few of us have any genuine knowledge of people with different backgrounds who live, work, and contribute to our country. It’s time we learned, and not only accept them, but embrace them and the cultures they bring and contribute to our country.

 

The first thing I noticed about this book was the bilingual nature. The even numbered pages are in English, the odd numbered pages are in Spanish. The second thing I noticed is these poems are honest. The tell of pain, of fear, of good times and of bad. The opening poem, “A Sleeping Bag and a Semi” is part of Centavo’s story. “I came from Mexicali across the border. // “I was born in California, / so I could have walked but I didn’t know. / I was bound up in not knowing.”

 

“Lost in the Desert” is the longest poem in the book, with one of the voices of David who is elder brother of Ricardo, and Salvador and Ramiro. It tells the story of crossing the desert, the hardships, the pains, and a friendly Border Patrol Agent. “The way in the desert is long, and lonely.” “My nephew, my sister, and I were left / while we slept.” “We drank water from an animal trough.” “The truth is, you play a lot with your life in the desert…”

 

The biographies of the collaborating poets are fascinating. Can you imagine going to work in the fields when you are five years old? Expected to contribute your earnings to the household? I can’t, either. But I have a much better understanding of that lifestyle now than I did before I read the book. Can you imagine your whole family living in a single room? Parents, younger siblings, possibly aunts and uncles? I can’t. 

 

Did you know if you eat food grown in Eastern Washington, chances are it was harvested by Mexicans, perhaps processed by Mexicans, and there is even a possibility one of those hardworking Mexicans owns the dirt upon which the produce was grown!

 

Buy this book. Read this book. Learn from and enjoy this book. And, just for grins, hire out and spend a month working and living with them in the next harvest season. It will change you in ways you didn’t know possible.

Take the Sun with You and Other Stories—by Gregory Allen Mendell.

 Publisher: KDP

September 26, 2022

1132 KB

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0BGMPGG5M

4 Stars

 

I truly do love a good short story, and to find a collection of good science fiction short stories, by a scientist no less, is wonderful.

 

These stories are what I believe is called “Hard Science Fiction” and I enjoyed them very much. Especially the last one. While I enjoyed all of them, the last one was my favorite.

 

If you take the science out of these stories, they will not hold together. And that, my friends is how to tell good science fiction from fantasy.

 

Mendell is a scientist and worked at the Hanford Site for many years. If he writes that A = Ax, then, if you do the math, you will find A = Ax. In other words, as a rocket scientist, he writes darn good stories. 

 

These stories are the perfect stories to read before you turn the light out at night. They are fun and will not come back to haunt you at 0230 hours. Honest. Trust me.

Arms of My Longing --by Kate Aver Avraham

 Publisher: Blue Light Press

September 16, 2021

Paperback: 42 pages (chapbook)

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1421837072

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1421837079

Cost at time of this review: $7.28

5 Stars

 

From the first poem, If you’re already on the road at five a.m., I was hooked. When on a road trip, I am frequently up and on the road by then. She writes of the Langendorf bread truck—could we have been neighbors at one time? I remember their bread and their bread trucks. And then, she nails me, “…take off your shirt / ride along in just a red tank top even though your arms are a little flabby, but you don’t care” and dare I admit, I, too, drive a Honda. She has written my autobiography in the first poem and done a better job of it by far than I could ever accomplish.

 

Her poem, Compassion, is a lesson we can all learn from, “This morning I gave five dollars / to a kid on the street / who said he was hungry. Everyone else ignored him”. In Portal, on a “Thick January night” she listens to Yo-Yo Ma play Bach and neither awake nor asleep, her father, “…[a] lover of Bach, / gone twenty long years, / … walks through the portal to join me.” This one brought memories of joy. The portal to my father is classical Spanish guitar.

 

Avraham writes of a truly tragic loss, of losing her son, and though I have never gone through such a loss, her poetry brought me as close to that heart wrenching pain as possible. Yet, she is neither maudlin nor whiny but introspective and plaintive.

 

This title of this collection explains the poems contained herein with the joy being alive. The last poem, Just for a While Longer, ends with “Just for a while longer / I want to feel life / jumping up inside me, / spinning me round and round / in circles of wonder.” And that sums the book beautifully. When you own your own copy of this book, you will be able to feel that life and spin and spin in ever widening circles of wonder.

Finding Her --by Kristie Williams

 Publisher: Finishing Line Press

August 19, 2022

Paperback: 44 pages (chapbook)

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1646629361

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1646629367

Cost at time of this review: $14.99

5 Stars

 

The poems in this book are, simply, amazing. The first poem, One Minute, is a poem of grief, of loss, of acceptance. I think it helps in reading her poems to note she is writing her story of quadriplegia and cerebral palsy. Her poems are not whines of ‘oh, woe is me’ they are frank looks at herself from where she started to where she is. The final lines of her poem, One Minute, says it all, “Before Quietly Stepping Into / Who I Am Now.” She is not a victim; she is a victor.

 

A few of her poems are as short as 3 lines, such as A Refracted Moment, “I watch my mother cry / desperate to reshape the asymmetrical daisy / swimming in her box of tears” and some are long as two pages. Most are one page.

 

All her poems have a line that will resonate. At least they did with me. Such as the second stanza of Portrait of a Magpie, “She is not misfortune; contrarily, she has soured / Soaking in wine and seasoned with antidepressants—"

 

However, for me, the piece de resistance of the book culminates in the third to last poem, Watching You Undress Me (A Love Letter to Body Image). It’s a love letter to body image, it’s a love letter to self, it’s a love letter to her lover. It is a beautiful poem to the beauty of being human, of acceptance, of, simply, being alive.

 

The last poem is a short one, and closes this book quietly, with many thoughts about living life to the fullest. A Diggers Lot, “Sitting alone / at time’s end—"

 

I’m not the only one who liked Watching You Undress Me—it was nominated for a Puschcart! Buy this book.