I think Rocky says this about Adrian: She's got gaps. I got gaps. Together we fill gaps. Or something like that. Happy National Poetry Month, Harriet Readers! I would like to celebrate this month by taking an inventory of the contemporary poetry books I have in my home. I didn't realize how intimate this list would be. But here it goes. I used to have more books, but one summer I sold all the BIG NAME COMPLETE POEMS books I had. You know it's hard out here for an english grad student, and sometimes we need some cash. The purpose of sharing this list with you is to maybe fill some of your gaps. And to keep it reciprocal. Maybe you can share with me (email, perhaps) your list and fill some of my gaps.
Without further ado--
tunaluna, alurista
Zero Hour and other documentary poems, Ernesto Cardenal
A Coney Island of the Mind, Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Starsdown, Jasper Bernes
And the Stars were Shining, Josh Ashberry
After All, William Mathews
The Good Thief, Marie Howe
On Carbon-Dating Hunger, Anthony Seidman
Situations, Signs, Jack Collom and Lyn Hejinian
Natural Histories, Leslie Ullman
La Carreta Made a U-turn, Tato Laviera
Undocumented Love/Amor Indocumentado, Jose Antonio Burciaga
The Place Within, Pope John Paul II
Borders, Pat Mora
Maritn & Meditations on the South Valley, Jimmy Santiago Baca
Que Linda la Brisa, Benjamin Saenz and Jimmy Santiago Baca with photographs by James Drake
Then, Suddenly, Lyn Emmanuel
Dear Jack, Scott Inguito
Late Wife, Claudia Emerson
The Darkness around Us is Deep, William Stafford
Frail Craft, Jessica Fisher
Field-Russia, Gennady Aygi
Furious Lullaby, Oliver de la Paz
Interior with Sudden Joy, Brenda Shaughnessy
Life Studies, Robert Lowell
For the Union Dead, Robert Lowell
Autobiography of Red, Anne Carson
Poems Across the Pavement, Luis J. Rodriguez
Diwata, Barbara Jane Reyes
The Light Around the Body, Robert Bly
Saturday Night at the Pahala Theatre, Lois-Ann Yamanaka
Walking Theory, Steven Vincent
The Intelligence of Clouds, Stanley Moss
Praise, Robert Hass
Post Meridian, Mary Ruefle
Slow Work through Sand, Leslie Ullman
Ariel, Sylvia Plath
Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream, Juan Felipe Herrera
A la suerte de tus brazos, Joel Servin Ortega
Imagenes los Juegos, Miguel Angel Zapata
Silencios, Ivan Trejo
La musa lunatica/ The Lunatic Muse, Rafael Jesus Gonzalez
The Man in the Black Coat Turns, Robert Bly
Sands of the Well, Denise Levertov
What We Carry, Dorianne Laux
Sonnets and Salsa, Carmen Tafolla
Aun/ Still Another Day, Pablo Neruda
Dreams by No One’s Daughter, Leslie Ullman
Palabras de Mediodia/ Noon Words, Lucha Corpi
Imago, Joseph O. Legaspi
Indian Trains, Erika Wurth
Gravities of Center, Barbara J. Pulmano Reyes
American Jesus, Richard Vargas
Metamorphosis of the Serpent God, Robert L. Giron
The Unicorn Poem & Flowers and Songs of Sorrow, E.A. Mares
My Kill Adore Him, Paul Martinez Pompa
From the Cables of Genocide: Poems on Love and Hunger, Lorna Dee Cervantez
Las Bicicletas de Boulder, Jose T. Espinosa Jacome
Cantos, Alfred Arteaga
This Many Miles from Desire, Lee Herrick
The Laughter of Doves, Frances Marie Trevino
Sonnets to Madness and Other Misfortunes, Francisco X. Alarcon
La Materia del Silencio, Cesar Baez, Gabriela Aguirre, Jose Andrade
The Computer is Down, Evangelina Vigil-Pinon
La Frontera: Un Cuerpo, Gabriela Aguirre Sanchez
East of the Freeway, raulsalinas
Estampida de poeminimos, Efrain Huerta
The Lost Country of Sight, Neil Aitken
From the Other Side of Night: New and Selected, Francisco X. Alarcon
Exiles of Desire, Juan Felipe Herrera
A contracorriente, Marco Antonio Campos/Book I: As life was, Jimmy Santiago Baca
The Complete Poems of Cavafy, trans Rae Dalven
Bestiary, Lourdes Vazquez
Bent to the Earth, Blas Manuel De Luna
La Cicatriz del Naipe, Jose Jaime Ruiz
Oasis, Jose Luis Parada
For colored boys who speak softly, yosimar reyes
from Sand Creek, Simon J. Ortiz
Thirty an’ Seen a Lot, Evangelina Vigil
De Amor Oscuro/ Of Dark Love, Francisco X. Alarcon
Poemas Plagiados, Esteban Peicovich
The Heart’s Traffic, Ching-In Chen
Poeta en San Francisco, Barbara Jane Reyes
El Reverso Exacto del Texto, Margarita-Sayak Valencia Triana
Whispering to Fool the Wind, Alberto Rios
Chants, Pat Mora
La Llorona on the Longfellow Bridge, Alicia Gaspar de Alba
The Seven Ages, Louise Gluck
boomerang, Brenda Cardenas
The Concrete River, Luis J. Rodriguez
The Country between Us, Carolyn Forche
Emotoma, Minerva Reynosa
Trench Town Rock, Kamau Brathwaite
Sol-Edades, Marco Antonio Dominguez
Artemis in Echo Park, Eloise Klein Healy
Thomas and Beulah, Rita Dove
Out of this World, Joseph Somoza
A Book Called Rats, Miguel Murphy
Delights & Shadows, Ted Kooser
Ten to One, Bob Perelman
The Beauty of the Husband, Anne Carson
The Lichtenberg Figures, Ben Lerner
Facts for Visitors, Srikanth Reddy
Asylum, Quan Barry
Oblique Prayers, Denise Levertov
Breathing the Water, Denise Levertov
Nights and Day, James Merrill
City of a Hundred Fires, Richard Blanco
The Other Man was Me: A Voyage to the New World, Rafael Campo
Spinach Days, Robert Philips
For the Sleepwalkers, Edward Hirsh
Breakdown Lane, Robert Philips
Dark and Perfect Angels, Benjamin Alire Saenz
La Costumbre Heroicamente Insana de Hablar Solo, Armando Alanis Pulido
Mixturao and Other Poems, Tato Laviera
Dark Thirthy, santee frazier
Celso, Leo Romero
Solstice, emmy perez
Los ojos ya deshechos, Luis Aguilar
La entranable constumbre o El libro de Felipe, Luis Aguilar
The Outer Bands, Gabriel Gomez
Puerta de Sol, Francisco Aragon
Selected poetry, Cecilio Garcia-Camarillo
Et tu . . . Raza?, alurista
Elegies in Blue, Benjamin Alire Saenz
Z eros, alurista
The Smoking Mirror, Naomi Helena Quinones
Other Fugitives and Other Strangers, Rigoberto Gonzalez
The Date Fruit Elegies, John Olivares Espinoza
How to Undress a Cop, Sarah Cortez
Somewhere between Houston and El Paso, Carolina Monsivais
My Own True Name: New and Selected Poems for Young Adults, Pat Mora
A Semblance: Selected and New Poems 1975-2007, Laura Moriarty
Cascadia, Brenda Hillman
The Woman who Fell from the Sky, Joy Harjo
Picture Palace, Stephanie Young
The World Doesn’t End, Charles Simic
Names Above Houses, Oliver de la Paz
What I’m On, Luis Humberto Valadez
Poemas & Antipoemas, Nicanor Parra
AmerIcan, Tato Laviera
Deshuesadero, Roman Lujan
Caja de Pandero, Sergio Wulschner
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, John Ashberry
Sunstone/Piedra de Sol, Octavio Paz
The Night Tito Trinidad KO’ed Ricardo Mayorga, Kevin Gonzalez
Revenge of the “Illegal Alien”, Cesar A. Preciado-Cruz (teolol)
Unending Blues, Charles Simic
My Heart Flooded with Water: Selected Poems, Alfonsina Storni
The Poems, Howard McCord
Poemas Escogidos, Al Qing
Plummet, Chris Nealon
The Joyous Age, Christopher Nealon
The Buried Sea: New and Selected, Rane Arroyo
In Formation: 20 Years of Joda, Jose Montoya
Tarde o Temprano: Poemas 1958-2000, Jose Emilio Pacheco
Teeth, Aracelis Girmay
Familia, Elisa A. Garza
They Say that I am Two, Marcos McPeek Villatoro
Suck on the Marrow, Camille T. Dungy
The Dream Songs, John Berryman
Drive: The First Quartet, Lorna Dee Cervantes
Snake Poems: An Aztec Invocation, Francisco X. Alarcon
187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border, Juan Felipe Herrera
from Unincorporated Territory [hacha], Craig Santos Perez
Frozen Accident, Alfred Arteaga
My Father Was a Toltec and selected poems, Ana Castillo
Why I Kick at Night, Ron Drummond
How the World Changed, Amit K. Ghosh
OBRAS, Xavier Villaurrutia
Bad Alchemy, Dionisio D. Martinez
Poems by Son, Trinidad Sanchez, Jr./ Poesias del Padre, Trinidad Vasquez Sanchez
Communion, Pat Mora
Feral, Jane McAdams
from Unincorporated Territory [saina], Craig Santos Perez
What to Eat, What to Drink, What to Leave for Poison, Camille T. Dungy
floricanto en aztlan, alurista
Calendar of Dust, Benjamin Alire Saenz
Dreaming the End of War, Benjamin Alire Saenz
Pity the Drowned Horses, Sheryl Luna
Don’t Let Me Be Lonely, Claudia Rankine
the iceworker sings and other poems, Andres Montoya
Paper Pavilion, Jennifer Kwon Dobbs
Business of Fancydancing, Sherman Alexie
Prayer to Spider Woman/ Rezo a la Mujer Arana, Renato Rosaldo
Mexican American poet Javier O. Huerta was born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and immigrated ...
Read Full Biography