Customer Reviews

Pity The Drowned Horses (The Andres Montoya Poetry Prize)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In one of the last poems of Pity the Drowned Horses, Sheryl Luna's richly textured debut collection, the narrator in "Las Alas" asks: "Can one return to a desolate / past, before one knew one was poor, / before the luxurious perfume?" This desperate query-which is never answered-is the fantasma that haunts every line of this book. Various identities grapple with each other seeking superiority and control: poor vs. middle class, Spanish vs. English, borderland vs. big city, atheist vs. believer, brown vs. white. In "Bullfight," this battle is a bewildering "river / that divides me, crosses me daily like the forgotten / history of my grandmother." The narrator has lost much of her ability to speak Spanish and "[e]ven the people I longed for, / la raza, forgot my face." Yet she knows that her mother, who is half Jewish, suffers this same rupture of identity: "Her own lost / heritage buried in a cemetery plot." But in "Learning to Speak," she admits that something must be done despite likely cultural humiliation: "I spoke / Spanish broken, tongue-heavy. I was once too proud / to speak Spanish in the barrio.... Quiero / aprender español, I whisper." And her would-be teacher responds without words: "He smiles." The risk is taken, and a reward received.

Luna's poems have graced the pages of some of the most prestigious literary journals published today: Prairie Schooner, The Georgia Review, Puerto del Sol, Kalliope, and many others. A native of El Paso who now teaches in Denver, she was a finalist for the National Poetry Series book awards and the Perugia Press Intro Award for women poets. With this collection, Luna won the first Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize sponsored by the Institute for Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame; she has set the bar high, indeed, for future prize candidates. [The full review first appeared in LatinoLA.]