Hoodwinked

by David Hernandez, Amy Gerstler (Introduction)

"Ultimately, the lyrics in Hoodwinked read as odes to mortality. They marvel nonstop, unsentimentally, and with necessary ambivalence, at the world as given and the human inability to consistently rise to the exhausting challenge of making every second count. These poems constantly acknowledge that 'all flesh is grass.' They make us hear the wondrous, terrifying hum of impending obliteration, while at the same time never growing immune to beauty, never ceasing to be curious about what the grass itself makes of our common temporal conundrum."
—Amy Gerstler, from the introduction

Inherent untrustworthiness—of received opinion, the trompe l’oeil deceptions of nature, and the workings of our own unfaithful minds—is given its proper menace in David Hernandez’ Hoodwinked . In poems that range from the backyard to Iraq and back again, Hernandez disturbs the surface of contemporary life to reveal barely submerged worlds that, impossible to fathom, make fools of us all.

Genres: Poetry

64 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Peggy Heitmann]

I'll start with the positive. I like the two poems "I Made a Door," and "The Body You're Suited-Up In."
I hated the poem "On Aggression." Mostly this collection does not speak to me though I found a few interesting lines. However, I do want to say that I found this collection interesting in Mr. Hernandez's word choice which were so violent and fierce in their selection. The whole tone was as he puts it--aggressive.

[Ryan Trauman]

OMG.

"Mother wears
a clip-on smile thanks to the tablet
that dissolved beneath her tongue."

And a half-dozen other snippets I could have quoted. Holy hell.

Read this guy.

[Michael]

David Hernandez is the real deal. In a handful of words he can conjure an image that baffles the senses.

[Katy]

An absolutely lovely book of poems. I wish I could combine words into art and feeling and nostalgia the way Mr. Hernandez does. I will read many more times.