LA TERTULIA:: enero 2009

A Sinking ship is still a ship

The title A Sinking Ship Is Still A Ship holds the secret to Ariel Francisco's sincere and quirky vision: even when all else fails, there is the matter of still being alive to ponder dilemma. Ah, yes, and to survey what is near at hand whether a flooded parking lot replete with an octopus, the usual alligator stopping traffic before waddling off into the highway brush, or the dilapidated mall left standing so the bats inside don't take over the city. You get the picture. Then there's also, the unnerving observation of an arrested man's handprints evaporating off an alley wall. Quirky in its own way. But sincere? Isn't that a terribly old fashioned quality? You know, dear reader, it's about time to claim a bit of that back, humor and all. Enjoy.'' --KIMIKO HAHN author of Foreign Bodies

New Book of Ariel Francisco

ALL MY HEROES ARE BROKE is a poetry collection written from the perspective of a first generation American coming to terms with the implicit struggles and disillusionment of the “American Dream.” The first section takes place in New York, both implicitly and explicitly, and serves to introduce the speaker and reveal aspects of his family’s history. The second section takes place in Florida, and continues to further exemplify the speaker’s growing cynicism towards the circumstances of his life, and the peculiar atmosphere of solitude that it creates. ALL MY HEROES ARE BROKE primarily uses two forms: short, image driven poems inspired by the works of Robert Bly and Po Chu-I; and longer narrative poems that reveal more personal information about the speaker, in the manner of Li-Young Lee and Frank O’Hara, allowing the speaker to project his own life onto the surroundings and the people of those larger communities.

Poesia de Carmen Valle

Freddy Gaton Arce

Nació en San Pedro de Macorís el 27 de marzo de 1920. Poeta, narrador, educador, periodista y abogado. Hijo de Manuel Asunción Gatón Richiez, dominicano, y María Teresa Arce Arenas, puertorriqueña. Cursó su educación primaria y secundaria en su ciudad natal. Doctor en Derecho por la Universidad de Santo Domingo (1946), institución donde luego fue profesor de leyes, director de la Escuela de Ciencias de la Información Pública (1962) y Vicedecano de la Facultad de Humanidades (1966). Fue catedrático en la Universidad Central del Este (UCE).

14 de enero de 2009