Product Description

Now Arte Público is pleased to announce a major selection of new and previously published poems chosen by Pat Mora herself with young-adult readers in mind. Using the cactus plant as her guiding metaphor for our existence, she presents more than sixty poems grouped variously into "Blooms," "Thorns," and "Roots." Each section opens with a graceful line drawing from artist Anthony Accardo, and the whole is prefaced by a whimsical and intimate introduction, "Dear Fellow Writter."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #706556 in Books
• Published on: 2000
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 81 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 9 Up-Mora has selected poems from her adult collections and added some new ones. She speaks of her own experience as a Latina in the Southwest, and of the experiences of those people whose lives have touched her own. Using the metaphor of a cactus, she has grouped the selections into three sections: "Blooms" (of loves and joys), "Thorns" (of hardships and sorrows), and "Roots" (of family, wisdom, home, and strength). She has chosen poems with themes that are accessible to, yet challenging for teens, a few of which appear in both English and Spanish. Occasional footnotes explain historical references or Spanish phrases. The introduction encourages young writers, as do the poems themselves. This anthology speaks to a young adult audience, and it should find many readers.
Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Interlaced with Mexican phrases and cultural symbols, these powerful selections, representing more than 15 years of work, address bicultural life and the meaning of family. Mora speaks very much from an adult perspective, but her poems are about universal experiences--the pleasures of eating pizza and mango, and the cultural significance of both; the wrenching experience of witnessing poverty. Mixed in are personal poems that ask the vital question, "Where am I from?" more directly. Mora answers in poems that reach back through her own experiences with motherhood (specifically mothering teenagers) and across generations to the landscape of her ancestors. The rich, symbolic imagery, raw emotion, and honesty will appeal to mature teens, and young writers will find inspiration in the warm introduction addressed to "Dear Fellow Writer," and its challenge to "Listen to your inside self, your private voice . . . explore the wonder of being alive." Gillian Engberg

Review
"Powerful selections... The rich, symbolic imagery, raw emotion, and honesty will appeal." -- Booklist

"She has chosen poems with themes that are accessible to, yet challenging for teens." -- School Library Journal

1910
Abuelita Magic
Abuelita's Ache
Border Town: 1938
Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge
Bribe
Cissy In A Bonnet
The Desert Is My Mother
Desert Women
Elena
Family Ties
Fences
First Love
For Georgia O'keeffe
Foreign Spooks
Gentle Communion
Goblin
Good-byes
Graduation Morning
Immigrants
In The Blood
Learning English: Chorus In Many Voices
Leyenda
Los Ancianos
Maestro
Mango Juice
Match
Maybe
Mothers And Daughters
Mush
No Substitutes
Now And Then, America
Ode To Pizza
Oral History
Peruvian Child
Petals
Picturesque: San Cristobal De Las Casas
Poinsettia
Puesta Del Sol
Pushing 100
Same Song
A Secret
Senior Citizen Trio
Senora X No More
Silence Like Cool Sand
Strong Women
Sugar
Teenagers
Tejedora Maya
Tigua Elder
To My Son
Tomas Rivera
Tree-wisdom
Two Worlds
University Avenue
Village Therapy
A Voice
The Young Sor Juana
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Customer Reviews

Carving One's Name and Self . . .
Celebrated Chicana poet and children's author Pat Mora once again contributes an essential collection to the growing body of U.S. Latina/o literature. Her new and selected poems for young adults address diverse themes, and each section contributes to the empowering vision of the collection. The section titled "Thorns" reveals society's wounds, but the possibility of hope to rise above harsh circumstances.

(The fifth star belongs to the next reader, the next young writer.)

Mora's poems carve a necessary voice in U.S. poetics. She is a healer with a vision, and the speakers in her poems are mostly witnesses, mapping their own space.

Pat Maro My own True Name
1B- ketzalliH.
my own true name is the best peom book I've ever read. It about a mexican lady that talks about her spanish roots. she also talks about what she went through as a child. her first love, her mother, father, sister and what her culture asked her to do. I love this book. this book to me in a number scale is 10.