Small Fires

by Jose Angel Araguz

In SMALL FIRES, José Angel Araguz engages personal mythologies of the self, culture, and place. The crucible of Mexican-American identity is on display: poems about feeling the need to hide one’s Spanish and family history live alongside those dealing with reclaiming and owning one’s language and life. At the center of this collection is a series detailing a divorce where heart and heritage clashed and forged a new beginning. Whether creating a fable of a man who tries to walk across Texas only to turn into a mesquite tree, addressing issues of domestic violence experienced both in childhood and as an adult, or catching up with La Llorona in cafes, saloons, and movie theaters, these poems move with the urgency of the present moment and the intimacy of memory and imagination.

Genres: Poetry

92 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2017

About the author

José Angel Araguz is a CantoMundo fellow and the author of seven chapbooks as well as the collections Everything We Think We Hear, Small Fires, Until We Are Level Again, and, most recently, An Empty Pot’s Darkness. His poems, creative nonfiction, and reviews have appeared in Crab Creek Review, Prairie Schooner, New South, Poetry International, and The Bind. Born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, he runs the poetry blog The Friday Influence and composes erasure poems on the Instagram account @poetryamano. He is also a faculty member in Pine Manor College’s Solstice Low-Residency MFA program. With an MFA from New York University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati, José is an Assistant Professor of English at Suffolk University in Boston where he also serves as Editor-in-Chief of Salamander Magazine.

Reviews

[FutureCycle Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

We are the publisher, so all of our authors get five stars from us. Excerpts:


MESQUITE

One day, a man decided
he could walk across Texas
and grew old trying, lost
his way, ended up twisted,
turned around on himself,
reaching out an arm, then
another, and then another,
until he was only arms
pointing all around
at the horizon—his skin
hardened, but his body began
to snap, and could be picked up
easily by the hands of
children at their games,
pretending at divining
water, writing curses
in the dirt, later
dropping him into
the fire, not all of him,
only a piece, a broken
part of him he knew
would only just grow back,
and he would let it—his heart
burst into sap, a dark
seen through, slugging down
toward feet that have forgotten
where they were going.



ALIEN

When I heard this word first thrown around
in conversation, my family’s Spanish
cracked to let in this strange stretch
of cautious whisper, the weather changed
in my mind. I’d read of spaceships,
of planets so advanced you could
travel freely, no stopping to be
asked about citizenship, no stone
face behind a badge peering
to where I sat in the backseat.
The world became another place.
The word wetback began to bring
to mind the scene where the dark creature
burst from a woman’s stomach
in a movie. The sky grew overcast
in my mother’s eyes, kept her inside,
when someone talked of borders.
Rosaries turned secret communicators.
Prayers: reports of worry and want.
Each crucifix, a satellite.
Before, I would stand outside and look
at what I felt to be not empty space
but an open window to another life.
Now, another life invaded.
There were people with papers,
and there were people without.
There were questions I was told
the answers to should they come up.
There were stories I was asked
to forget. When my mother pressed
the silver face of St. Jude
into my palm, I felt the weight
of it, the cold and unfamiliar
feel of what I didn’t know.

[Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection really grew on me. I loved every single poem in Section 3, not to say the first two sections weren't as strong, Section 2 in particular had a strong impact on me, but Section 3 was my favorite. Trigger Warning for abuse. There is domestic abuse as well as child abuse discussed throughout, but don't let that throw you off the whole collection. Small Fires reads as autobiographical and heartfelt, a strong Mexican influence and great writing, I definitely recommend this collection!

[John Dunbar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a few pages every day and enjoyed it very much.

[Ximena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another overlooked contemporary poet who's thoughtful and brilliant. There is so much Latinx excellence out there. This book deserves more attention.