At the Park on the Edge of the Country: Poems

by Austin Araujo

In At the Park on the Edge of the Country, Austin Araujo maps the intricacies of memory, immigration, and belonging through the experiences of one Mexican American family—his own—in the rural American South, crystallizing memory and self-knowledge as collaborative, multivocal affairs. Human and nonhuman voices and the competing landscapes of childhood and adulthood propel these poems, offering an unyielding portrait of a family’s endless encounters with the shortcomings of citizenship. Speakers sleep like tostadas, mistake hikers crossing a small river in Arkansas for a migrant father, and hold onto silence through difficult conversations in the fields and in the city. Revelatory and striking, these poems reinvent origin myths to unmask the contradictory and expansive astonishments of Mexican American identity in the twenty-first century.

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

Published February 24, 2025

Reviews

[Hafsa | حفصہ]

3.5 stars

A deeply personal first poetry collection featuring a recollection of childhood in a disjointed family, impact of intergenerational trauma, and the coming of oneself in a country which neither welcomes nor rejects you wholly. Some poems felt overly descriptive and could've been condensed while some shorter poems lacked impact and felt forgettable. The second section was particularly strong. Overall, an impressive debut with much to admire and come back to.

One poem I'd like to teach: The Bull.

Poems that I will be revisiting: A Mexican American Novel, The Tostada, At The Park On The Edge Of The Country, At Lake Temescal, The Bull, Clearing, Watching Him Cross.

[Megan Ketcher Gayer]

I had the intention to read one poem at a time. However, I sat on my bed and devoured this entire book in one sitting. I loved getting a glimpse into the mind of the author and his Mexican American identity. A truly beautiful and moving collection of poems.

[Gabrielle Wonnell]

"Gathering" really hit. Great volume of poetry.

[Ajibola]

Incredible. Austin is a poet of extraordinary brilliance. The poems seem to elevate the everyday world into moments of unforgettable lifetime. Poems like Bull and Betting the House stand out.