Search
An association of writers working to advance literature, defend free expression, and to foster international literary fellowship.
Literary awards
Beyond Margins
Children's Literature
drama
Editing and Publishing
fiction
nonfiction
poetry
translation
winners archive
Entry Fee
Contact Us
spacer
Newsletter

Home > Herrera

Juan Felipe Herrera: A Certain Man

Juan Felipe Herrera is the recipient of a 2009 PEN/Beyond Margins Award for Half of the World in Light: New and Selected Poems (University of Arizona Press, 2008).


  Selected Poems from
Half of the World in Light


A Certain Man[Let Us Gather in a Flourishing Way]Crescent Moon on a Cat’s CollarShe Wants the Ring Like He Wants the Suit of Scars/But3:45June Journals 6-25-88Follow RóżewiczWater Water Water Wind WaterLet Me Tell You What a Poem Brings
   

   

LISTEN 


   


A Certain Man

The man over there
with educated fingers and fast
     clouds
around his flag
rolls his shirt sleeves & calls
a taxi from church . . .
His eyeteeth clap like his family
for an encore of southwest earth
wolfed with fever
. . . Skilled and styled to believe
that Moctezuma blood & spirit
. . . are dead, as he pumps
a book through his ears.
Inside his stomach roast
meat (buttered in
     philosophy)
makes yellow drops
on his hide overboil down
to his buttons.
Only heavy fur pulls
his head to a pillow
rusting completely overnight
. . . like his prayer.



Copyright © 2008 by Juan Felipe Herrera. All rights reserved.

 


Join PEN TodayGrants & Awards online database.  Sign up today!
Home | Site Map | Copyright / Privacy Policy | Contact Us © 2004-2010 PEN American Center. All rights reserved.