Whispering to Fool the Wind: Poems

by Alberto Alvaro Ríos

Winner of the translation prize from the American Academy of Poets.

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

In 1952, Alberto Alvaro Ríos was born on the American side of the city of Nogales, Arizona, on the Mexican border. He received a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Arizona in 1974 and a MFA in Creative Writing from the same institution in 1979.

He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Dangerous Shirt (Copper Canyon Press, 2009); The Theater of Night (2007); The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body (2002), which was nominated for the National Book Award; Teodora Luna's Two Kisses(1990); The Lime Orchard Woman (1988); Five Indiscretions (1985); and Whispering to Fool the Wind (1982), which won the 1981 Walt Whitman Award, selected by Donald Justice.

Other books by Ríos include Capirotada: A Nogales Memoir (University of New Mexico Press, 1999), The Curtain of Trees: Stories (1999), Pig Cookies and Other Stories (1995), and The Iguana Killer: Twelve Stories of the Heart (1984), which won the Western States Book Award.

Ríos's poetry has been set to music in a cantata by James DeMars called "Toto's Say," and on an EMI release, "Away from Home." He was also featured in the documentary Birthwrite: Growing Up Hispanic. His work has been included in more than ninety major national and international literary anthologies, including the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.

"Alberto Ríos is a poet of reverie and magical perception," wrote the judges of the 2002 National Book Awards, "and of the threshold between this world and the world just beyond."

He holds numerous awards, including six Pushcart Prizes in both poetry and fiction, the Arizona Governor's Arts Award and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Since 1994 he has been Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University, where he has taught since 1982. He lives in Chandler, Arizona.

Reviews

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

What makes a great poet? Certainly, the ability to craft a line or phrase that jumps right off the page. That gift is well-represented here in Alberto Alvaro Rios' "Whispering to Fool the Wind." From "The Woman's Ears": "...her silver eyes / which were eyes for her / no longer". From "The Man I Cannot Talk To": "...I am not a smart enough / animal to cover my tracks / with a thin and quiet tail." From "The Other Calendar": "Today is Saturday, regardless of the calendar." Rios' is not a one-hit wonder. He knocks poems out of the park on the regular: "Some Years," "The Purpose of Altar Boys," "The Men in Dreams," "The Pioneer Hotel Fire"... I came across this collection, with its torn dust jacket and an opening poem ("Lost on September Trail, 1967") that looked as though spattered with dried blooddrops, while poking around the Vermont Studio Center's cozy library well after midnight. And the verses herein are as welcome and inspiring and unexpected as any in-person encounter that's happened among this month's cohort of 30 artists/writers, gathered in the small town of Johnston, Vermont. Books too, I'm reminded, can become new friends.

[Bobby · Rating 3 out of 5]

For the record, my reviews of poetry tend to be very subjective. This volume was hard for me to read in the early going but picked up steam - and made more sense to me - as I got further in. Still, I'd recommend most recent collections of Rios poetry over this one, especially A Small Story About the Sky, my personal fave (so far!) of his.

[Timothy Hoiland · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan.