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Breaking Break with the Darkness
Book 1 The Esai Poems

By Jimmy Santiago Baca   
978-1-890932-39-8
Poetry/Literature
$ 12.95
/Soft Cover - Paper over Board
112 Pages
2011-04

    

After 25 years in the system, from an orphanage at age five to a maximum security prison cell at 31, Jimmy Santiago Baca has become one of the most powerful literary voices in America today.

Baca’s raw, sometimes guttural, sometimes tender locution sounds out an unbroken cry for truth.
Baca’s latest book of poetry, THE ESAI POEMS, first in a series of four books of essays and poetry in the BREAKING BREAD WITH THE DARKNESS series, weaves a tapestry of devotion for his infant son with Baca’s truthful, less gentle observations. Baca entices his reader with the unadulterated antics of his baby, a world we pine for when so deftly portrayed as Baca illustrates through his word
magic.

I remember when you found your nose/a small, soft ornament/that itched and sneezed
scaring you to tears;/and how happy you were to find/your hands,/two wonderful
appendages with five/lovely fingers attached to them.

Throughout the playful images expressing his tender side that carried him through the years of “the system,” Baca’s raw voice emerges shouting out for the truth and pleading with his people [Latinos]…and all readers.

Your mama awakens/we snuggle into her breasts/you for milk, me her flesh/
you mutter comfortably/
I growl lavishly deep chest hungering lust.

Baca’s free verse and unapologetic approach to a wide range of human, cultural, and political topics is reminiscent of another famous American poet: Walt Whitman. Like Whitman, Baca’s plea is for us to take action: remember the way life unfolded before lost innocence, show compassion, be tender and at the same time stand strong, speak out, and forever speak the truth.

I believe/your steps are acts of love against cruise missiles,/
you open arms as you rush headlong to me/
acts of love against bigots who would label Protesters/terrorists.

Western Edge
Press

Previous works include A GLASS OF WATER, SELECTED POEMS/POEMAS SELECTOS, and STORIES FROM THE EDGE.

Baca has won numerous awards, including American Book Award, Pushcart Prize, International Hispanic Heritage Award, and International Award.

order the book 

 Western Edge/Sherman Asher Publishing
126 Candelario St.
Santa Fe, NM 87501
Telephone: 505 988-7214
email: westernedge@santa-fe.net