ancestor of fire

by Aaron A. Abeyta

Amazing New Collection from Poet, Aaron Abeyta. The poems and prose in Aaron Abeyta's powerful new collection rise directly from the land of his home in the high desert of the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado where his family has farmed for many generations. In, A Letter To Pratt In Praise of Books , Abeyta says, "Perhaps we are all here to trace and collect words, to sow meaning; we collect that thing which people discard as ordinary and bring it to a page of life where it can flourish and be the map of human struggle and therefore an instruction as to how we can all survive." Through difficulty, heartbreak and exultant moments Abeyta find language as the road ahead. The compassion and understanding Abeyta has for the people and places in his life comes through clear, wonderful, filled with hard-earned strength and the helpless urge to carry on - with hope. As he says further in his Letter to Pratt . . . "Language is my wife's love of living and remembered things, language is my mother's hands or my father's tired back, language is my daughter's smile, the medicine of it after I believed that parts of me were broken forever. Language is water that carries me simultaneously forward and into the past." "There is no other voice that conjures the sky and keeps count of stars as human migrations, moving, fading, and bursting anew as Abeyta's. Here he is standing naked and alone on the abandoned snowdrifts and tierras, holding them as fallen angels and stellar evidence of our birthright -- the luminous lands we claimed we would honor thirty-five years ago. Abeyta speaks with the voices of Nazim Hikmet, Jim Sagel, Allison Hedge-Coke and Albert Hunter, all lovers of the small earth and its colossal heart."-- Juan Felipe Herrera, former United States Poet Laureate Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Hybrid. Latinx Studies.

162 pages, Paperback

Published December 1, 2022

Reviews

[Melodiestarr · Rating 5 out of 5]

No one else could write this book but Aaron Abeyta. Every word, every experiment in form and sound is an expression of his world and family. Reading this book cover to cover was an experience in time travel. We see through the eyes of his grandparents then discover the heartbreaking path he took to parenthood. Abeyta is not afraid of turning language inside out and backwards if it can transport his reader into his mind and heart. Some of the best poems here are love poems to his wife Michelle. They remind me fondly of Pablo Neruda’s love poems. And love is the prevailing emotion animating this collection. Love of land, of ancient ancestors, of family, of cold lambs, of the very universe itself. A beautiful book. Savor it, page by page.

[Laura Pritchett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love every single book of aaron abeyta's . . . this is no exception. . . poetry filled with grace. . . .