Synopses & Reviews
In this new collection of poems, Martín Espada crosses the borderlands of epiphany and blasphemy: from a pilgrimage to the tomb of Frederick Douglass to an encounter with the swimming pool at a center of torture and execution in Chile, from the adolescent discovery of poet Omar Khayyám to the death of an "illegal" Mexican immigrant.
from "The Trouble Ball"
On my father's island, there were hurricanes and tuberculosis, dissidents in jail
and baseball. The loudspeakers boomed: Satchel Paige pitching for the Brujos
of Guayama. From the Negro Leagues he brought the gifts of Baltasar the King;
from a bench on the plaza he told the secrets of a thousand pitches: The Trouble Ball,
The Triple Curve, The Bat Dodger, The Midnight Creeper, The Slow Gin Fizz,
The Thoughtful Stuff. Pancho Coímbre hit rainmakers for the Leones of Ponce;
Satchel sat the outfielders in the grass to play poker, windmilled three pitches
to the plate, and Pancho spun around three times. He couldn't hit The Trouble Ball.
Review
"Espada's avuncular charm--his warm, earnest, sly voice--finds intimacy in the lives of public figures and emblematic weight in his own stories . . . playful, earthy, both welcoming and 'roaring' its vision of inclusion and fairness. . . . [T]he book enacts this ethos beautifully." Antioch Review
Synopsis
from "The Trouble Ball On my father's island, there were hurricanes and tuberculosis, dissidents in jail and baseball. The loudspeakers boomed: Satchel Paige pitching for the Brujo of Guayama. From the Negro Leagues he brought the gifts of Baltasar the King from a bench on the plaza he told the secrets of a thousand pitches: The Trouble Ball The Triple Curve, The Bat Dodger, The Midnight Creeper, The Slow Gin Fizz The Thoughtful Stuff. Pancho Coimbre hit rainmakers for the Leones of Ponce Satchel sat the outfielders in the grass to play poker, windmilled three pitche to the plate, and Pancho spun around three times. He couldn't hit The Trouble Ball"
Synopsis
"[An] important work . . . inspiring its readers to greater human connection and to keep fighting the good fight."--
About the Author
Martín Espada has received a Shelley Memorial Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, among other honors. A professor of English at the University of Massachusetts, Espada lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.