Gary Soto New and Selected Poems (Contemporary American Poetry, Poetry Books for Teens and Adults)

by Soto, Gary

• ISBN13: 9780811807586
• ISBN10: 0811807584
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1995-03-01
• Publisher: HACHETTE

Summary

For over two decades, the award-winning poet and author Gary Soto has been offering his readers a vision that transcends the ordinary, making him one of today's most celebrated Chicano writers. "New and Selected Poems" includes the best of his seven full-length collections, plus over 23 new poems previously unpublished in book form. From the charged, short-lined poems of Soto's early writing to an unflinching look at poverty and hard labor in California's Central Valley to the off-beat humor in his longer, more recent work, "New and Selected Poems" is a timely tribute to a brilliant writer whose work confirms the power of the human spirit to survive and soar.

Author Biography

Gary Soto is one of today's most celebrated Chicano writers. He has received the Literature Award from the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, and his New & Selected Poems was a finalist for the National Book Award. He lives in Berkeley, California.

Table of Contents

Sizing Up the Sparrows, a preface	1	(5)
from THE ELEMENTS OF SAN JOAQUIN	6	(24)
The Elements of San Joaquin	6	(4)
Summer	10	(1)
Field Poem	11	(1)
Hoeing	12	(1)
Avocado Lake	12	(1)
The Morning They Shot Tony Lopez, Barber and Pusher Who Went Too Far, 1958	13	(1)
Telephoning God	14	(1)
In December	14	(2)
Copper	16	(1)
History	17	(2)
Moving Away	19	(1)
Moving Away	20	(1)
Spirit	20	(2)
Photo, 1957	22	(1)
The Evening of Ants	23	(1)
Braly Street	24	(6)
from THE TALE OF SUNLIGHT	30	(16)
The Little Ones	30	(1)
The Soup	31	(1)
Song for the Pockets	31	(1)
The Shepherd	32	(1)
The First	32	(2)
The Journey	34	(1)
At the Cantina	35	(1)
The Creature	36	(1)
A Few Coins	37	(2)
Catalina Trevino Is Really from Heaven	39	(1)
The Ring	40	(1)
The Tale of Sunlight	41	(2)
The Space	43	(3)
from WHERE SPARROWS WORK HARD	46	(24)
The Street	46	(3)
Mission Tire Factory, 1969	49	(1)
TV in Black and White	50	(1)
Mexicans Begin Jogging	51	(1)
Hitchhiking with a Friend and a Book that Explains the Pacific Ocean	51	(1)
Walking with Jackie, Sitting with a Dog	52	(1)
Chuy	53	(10)
There	63	(1)
Her	64	(1)
The Widow Perez	65	(1)
Frankie	66	(1)
Bulosan, 1935	67	(3)
from BLACK HAIR	70	(26)
Black Hair	70	(1)
The Plum's Heart	71	(1)
Oranges	72	(2)
Behind Grandma's House	74	(1)
Brown Girl, Blonde Okie	74	(1)
Heaven	75	(2)
Learning to Bargain	77	(1)
Ode to the Yard Sale	77	(3)
Ambition	80	(2)
The Estonian Comes to Dinner	82	(1)
Kearney Park	83	(1)
Morning on this Street	83	(2)
Envying the Children of San Francisco	85	(1)
Failing in the Presence of Ants	86	(1)
Shopping for a Woman	87	(1)
Saturday under the Sky	88	(1)
Finding a Lucky Number	89	(1)
Looking Around, Believing	90	(1)
The Trees that Change Our Lives	91	(1)
Between Words	92	(4)
from WHO WILL KNOW US?	96	(28)
A Red Palm	96	(1)
Another Time	97	(1)
The Seventieth Year	98	(1)
Heaven	99	(1)
Eve	100	(1)
Elegy	101	(1)
Looking for a Cemetery	102	(1)
Who Will Know Us?	103	(1)
Magnets	104	(2)
Target Practice	106	(1)
That Girl	107	(1)
Learning My Lesson	108	(1)
Confession to Mrs. Robert L. Snow	109	(2)
Small Town with One Road	111	(1)
The Philosophy of Dog & Man	112	(1)
Good Morning, Fresno	113	(1)
At the All-Night Cafe	114	(1)
Worry at the End of the Month	115	(2)
Sorrow in French	117	(1)
Taking the Movies to the Streets	118	(1)
Rough Translation of a Sabines Poem	119	(2)
Ars Poetica, or Mazatlan, on a Day When Bodies Wash to the Shore	121	(3)
from HOME COURSE IN RELIGION	124	(28)
Pink Hands	124	(2)
The Gold Cannon	126	(1)
Apple	126	(3)
The Dictionaries	129	(2)
Some Mysteries	131	(2)
Some Worry	133	(2)
The Box Fan	135	(2)
The Wrestler's Heart	137	(2)
Drinking in the Sixties	139	(2)
The Levee	141	(1)
Not Moving	142	(1)
Home Course in Religion	143	(4)
The Family in Spring	147	(5)
SUPER - EIGHT MOVIES, new poems	152
Chisme at Rivera's Studio	152	(1)
Que Pretty in Tejas	153	(1)
Traveling Burros	154	(1)
Old Prof with Both Hands on the Rail	155	(1)
College Car	156	(1)
Rural Living	157	(1)
Dizzy Girls in the Sixties	158	(1)
Magazine Advice	159	(1)
Not Knowing	160	(2)
Making Up Time	162	(1)
Planet News	163	(1)
Sizing Up a Marriage	164	(1)
Water and Light	165	(1)
Fair Trade	166	(2)
Some Coins	168	(1)
Old House in My Fortieth Year	169	(1)
Waterwheel	170	(1)
Afternoon Memory	170	(1)
A Better View	171	(1)
Saturday in Chinatown	172	(2)
Vernon Manor, or Hotelling on the Cheap	174	(1)
Super-Eight Movies	175	(1)
Summer Marriage	176