Piedra

PIEDRA a new collection of poems by Luis Alberto Urrea?That which cannot be destroyed - so it is this is Urrea's Piedra Tao Urrea's third eye swiveling across the cosmos & canyons timeless in this kernel of corn an endless spiraling prayer of the rezanderas an inky rosario of vision heat caminatas a sitting on the oldest stone on the earth as he writes he throws his arms up cracks open his chest to the night stars and the sacred blaze of the angel factory - he chants he whispers tender and ragged on the curve of cerulean blue the poems the book. The Piedra arises wild and free this is ocean magic restitched sizzling bullets of Zapata you will eat seashell and taste Belgian stamps you will lean on wild wolves smell their pelts you will feed iguanas you will eat at the restaurant of Urrea's mysteries unlock their ancient honeyed lips and smear your face upon them and their shadows will come to you and you will enter the life and lives of the blinking elements of Piedra consciousness forever. I absolutely love this book these poems these short-line and long-line night and dawn painted teachings. An incredible pyramid and temple of word magic. Bravissimo! No doubt no return. -Juan Felipe Herrera Poet Laureate of the United States Emeritus