Black Mesa Poems

by Jimmy Santiago Baca

Black Mesa Poems is rooted in the American Southwest, the setting of Jimmy Santiago Baca's highly acclaimed long narrative poem, Martin Meditations on the South Valley (New Directions, 1987). "Baca's evocation of this landscape," as City Paper noted, "its aridity and fertility, is nothing short of brilliant." The individual poems of Black Mesa are embedded both in the family and in the community life of the barrio, detailing births and deaths, neighbors and seasons, injustices and victories. Loosely interconnected, the poems trace a visionary biography of place.

Genres: Poetry, Banned Books, Latinx, Classics, Nonfiction

126 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1989

About the author

Jimmy Santiago Baca of Apache and Chicano descent is an American poet and writer.

Reviews

[Laura Callanan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not one to enjoy poetry, but I loved this collection of poems. Baca captures the essence of New Mexico as a place and a people in such an evocative way that it helps me feel there even from this distance.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

The argument this book caused in my "Environmental Poetry" class was priceless.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like his poetry. I've heard him speak several times at conferences, and he's as real as his poems. A new voice for minorities.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://dog-earedpoetry.blogspot.com/2...

[Meg Tuite · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite poets! Baca is a phenomenon that you must experience. Pick a collection of his or his autobiography and read it! You will be transformed!

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2 ⭐️ or a bit more

[Steven Godin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lie in bed at night
and hear the soft throb of water
surging through the ditch,
from extreme to extreme water bounds,
clumsy country boy,
stumbling over fallen logs and rubber tires
to meet a lover
who awaits in her parents' house, window open.

As I used to for love.

Now gray-black hair,
vigorous cheeks, weathered brow, chapped lips,
dismal thoughtful eyes,
I float in brown melancholy on the lazy currents
of memory, studying my reflection
on the water this night,
with distant devotion,
a swimmer who has forgotten how to swim.

****

Sun buries its face
in dark brown
landscape of the West Mesa.

Woman I love
buries my chin
in her breast with pleasure,

teaches me,
to have a good spring
I need a good winter.

****

You make
a thousand expressions of distaste
and indifference, like a bored prince
unimpressed with our performance,
you scream
and we stagger out of bed,
grumbling at the unmerciful rule
of our emperor.
We become fortune-tellers
guessing what you desire.
We become dwarfs
at your service,
jugglers of toy bears and rattlers,
musicians continually winding up the music box,
and after all of it, you simply
shut your eyes, burp, and go to sleep.
We have never loved anyone more than you
my child.

[Craig Werner · Rating 4 out of 5]

JSB does a great job capturing the feel of the Southwest--landscape, history, culture--with a central and appropriate focus on the Chicanx communities of northern New Mexico. His voice is deceptively calm, almost chatty, but opening up into moments of intense lyrical insight. And his tribute to his friend El Sapo is one of the best extended character sketches in recent decades. Other favorites; Drawing Light, A God Loosened, Sweet Revenge, What's Real and What's Not, Choices, Family Tree, Work We Hate and Dreams We Love.

A few lines from El Sapo to give you a sense of the flavor:

He loved testing man's hope
man's faith in himself to be courageous.
To him, loyalty was half of life.
The other half was breaking boundaries,
pushing extremes,
chancing the great hovering darkness
of the unknown.

.....

When I was around you
darkness stilled in me,
and I'd get lost in all the freedom.
My words with you had to be honest,
strike sparks off the two pieces of flint
we were.

[Stephanie Allen · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bunch of poems that weren't very interesting and didn't really read like poetry in my opinion.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Best read by the author.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars

[ayda · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the most beautiful collections of poetry I’ve ever read

[Miguel Vega · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5

His long poem to his friend Sapo was gorgeous. Handful of other poems were as beautiful, but I found myself not too mesmerized by the over-descriptions in various other poems.

[behsforensics]

Cutting is for From Violence to Peace
By Jimmy Santiago Baca

[Travis Timmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poems from my home: New Mexico. Boy, did I savor many of these—that familiar landscape, the almost sacred green chile, the people, and way of life, the blending of cultures, and violence and pain. All of it.

I thought a few poems toward the end hit some false notes, but most were so, so wonderful.

[Kelsey Porter · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Jimmy Santiago Baca’s Black Mesa Poems we see an acceptance of La Malinche’s Indigenous roots through his connection and spiritual tie to the land. Anzaldúa rightly notes, “The worst kind of betrayal lies in making us believe that the Indian woman in us is the betrayer” (44). Through poetry Baca is creating what Anzaldúa refers to as a new mythos–chang[ing] the way we perceive reality, the way we see ourselves, and the ways we behave–la mestiza creates new consciousness” (102). In his poem, “As Children Know” Baca looks to Deer Woman, “Red Bird of my heart thrashes wildly after her” (37) the speakers in his poems often draw spirituality and strength from the land. In “Praise” the speaker sits under the cottonwood branches, the religious imagery inexplicably tied to nature, “under the ancient altar of wood.” In his poem, “In Mi Tio Baca El Poeta De Socorro” Baca states, “You kneel before La Virgen De Guadalupe…I close the door, and search the prairie” (75). Baca embraces his Indigenous roots and through acceptance, the myth of Malinche’s betrayal loses its grasp.

[Anastasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Going back to read this again now after having met the author in college.