{"product_id":"hispanic-sonnets-9781953447227","title":"Hispanic Sonnets","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn Alex Z. Salinas' previous poetry collections, he commenced conversation between the damaged body politic within himself and the bizarre, sometimes beautiful dream worlds of writers, painters and musicians-Muses-living and dead. In Hispanic Sonnets, the dials are turned up, the stakes (whatever they may be) are heavier, and the chorus of voices is louder, clearer. Hispanic Sonnets is part homage to the venerated and part turning the other cheek. In the final section of this book, a series of 15-line, free-verse sonnets continue the dialogue Salinas started in South Texas, or, to him, the center of his heart. This collection is the dream the poet still lives in, shattered and stitched back together with family, love, loss, pride and dignity; in short, Hispanic Sonnets is the book that least embarrasses him. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA note on Hispanic sonnets\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat is a Hispanic sonnet? It is a 15-line, free-verse poem with a separated last line as its own\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003estanza. Each Hispanic sonnet's second and final stanza-that lonely little manmade\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eisland-serves as its volta, or turn, meaning that where the poem ends in idea, tone, or spirit is\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003enot necessarily where it begins.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLet it be known, then: a Hispanic sonnet is not really a sonnet.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eShakespeare transformed the 14-line English sonnet. Petrarch perfected the much-older 14-line\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eItalian sonnet. Wanda Coleman dazzled with her rule-busting, 14-line American sonnets, and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTerrance Hayes carried her tradition to new heights.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCorpus Christi's first Poet Laureate, Alan Berecka, informed me that writers he'd encountered\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ehave penned 15-line sonnets called quince sonnets. Having never attended a quinceañera or a\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003equinceañero, I-a non-Spanish-speaking South Texan-smiled upon learning this grain of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epoetry's organic history. Quince sonnets seemed to me, naturally, inevitable. The sweetest, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etangiest apples and oranges ever within reach.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe poet Iliana Rocha, whom I had the pleasure to read with on a virtual open mic, has authored\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ea beautiful, 18-line (by my count) poem titled \"Mexican American Sonnet.\" Juan Felipe Herrera, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eformer United States Poet Laureate and the first Hispanic appointed to that role, once told me\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ehe'd removed commas from a poem after having mastered them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is in this shadow, perhaps, that I arrived at the Hispanic sonnet, whose name is the only\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003einvention herein I claim. The chasm between two stanzas representing everything and\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003enothing-the worst and best of what we are capable of in community and in solitude.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eEverything else remains an inevitability.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Flowersong Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50610749243666,"sku":"9781953447227","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_51e021f2-4435-431d-b9e0-d10b1f8b80f0.jpg?v=1732348654","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/hispanic-sonnets-9781953447227","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}