Birthmark
Submitted by MARGARET RHEE on Sat, 2005-01-01 08:00.
While the surreal stimulations of poetry may be nowhere near the turbocharged vibrations from your newly constructed rice rocket, pick up Birthmark when you're racing away from home, lonely. This poignant collection of poems by Jon Pineda stirs up deep nostalgia for places you have never known. Ranging from themes of growing up bi-racial, to fatherhood and Filipino culture, Pineda subtly welcomes us with his deft command of the word, to the deep introspections of day-to-day living. Life intersects with the poetic--we just don't see it; the cross-currents of life and poetry meet on the pages of Birthmark through poems such as "Matamis," "Birthmark," and "Corolla." It dances up on you and churns slowly and smoothly, within deep places in your psyche. Translation: The feeling you got when your stylish bumper design won first place. Winner of the Crab Orchard Award Series in Poetry, Birthmark resonates within those from all ethnic backgrounds. Are you living? Are you breathing? Is your life poetic? Perhaps you may not realize it, but, yeah, that stick shift trick you do, it does have rhythm to it. Racer boy, be warned: don't lend Birthmark to your hoochie mama girlfriend. The photo of Jon Pineda: you'll never see your book again.
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