Heredities: Poems (Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets)

In his award-winning first book, J. Michael Martinez reenvisions Latino poetics and its current conceptions of cultural identity. In Heredities , he opens a historically ravaged continental body through a metaphysical dissection into Being and silence. The hand manipulates a surgical etymology through the spine: the longitude where "history gathers in the name we never are." The poems seek to speak beyond codified aesthetics and dictated identity politics in order to recognize a territory of "irreducible otherness" where the self's sinew may be "reeved through revelation" and where, finally, one finds "obscurity bonded to light." This stunning collection heralds the arrival of an important new voice in American poetry. In His Award-winning First Book, J. Michael Martinez Reenvisions Latino Poetics And Its Current Conceptions Of Cultural Identity. In Heredities, He Opens A Historically Ravaged Continental Body Through A Metaphysical Dissection Into Being And Silence. The Hand Manipulates A Surgical Etymology Through The Spine: The Longitude Where History Gathers In The Name We Never Are. The Poems Seek To Speak Beyond Codified Aesthetics And Dictated Identity Politics In Order To Recognize A Territory Of Irreducible Otherness Where The SelfÆs Sinew May Be Reeved Through Revelation And Where, Finally, One F. Heredities (1) Etymology -- Xicano -- Maria -- He Name Me Miklo -- White -- Aporia -- Heredities (2) Corporeity -- Water Poppies Open As The Mouth -- Binding Of The Reeds -- Heredities : Letters Of Relation : First Letter, Second Letter, Third Letter -- Articulations Of Quetzalcoatl's Spine -- The Sternum Of Our Lady Of Guadalupe -- The Lady Of Guadalupe's Dream And Jade Ruin -- Heredities (3) Archetype -- Parable Of The Pigeon -- In The Year Of The Jubilee -- The Quietest Heaven -- White Song -- Portrait Of An Iris -- Meister Eckhart's Sermon On Flowers And The Philosopher's Reply -- Atropos -- Heredities (4) Amma -- Notes. J. Michael Martinez. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 75-77). Walt Whitman Award, 2009. In his Walt Whitman Award-winning first book, J. Michael Martinez re-envisions Latino poetics and its current conceptions of cultural identity. Heredities seeks to speak beyond codified aesthetics and dictating identity politics in order to recognize a territory of ""irreducible otherness"" where the self's sinew may be ""reeved through/ revelation"" and where, finally, one finds ""obscurity bonded to light.""