Every Day is Magic: Ada Limón
In her 2015 collection, Bright Dead Things, a National Book Award finalist for poetry, Ada Limón writes of moving to Kentucky: “Confession: I did not want to live here.” It’s perhaps not a surprising sentiment coming from a coastally oriented person who was raised in Northern California, attended college in Seattle, and then spent over a decade in New York City.
But Limón and her husband, Lucas, have been in Lexington for seven years now and the effects of settling into this place are noticeable in her new book, The Carrying (Milkweed, Aug.). It’s a phenomenally lively and attentive collection replete with the trappings of living a little closer to nature. While Bright Dead Things is marked by a preponderance of light, such as images of fireflies and neon signs, The Carrying features numerous appearances by various trees, birds, and beetles. Limón also demonstrates a greater willingness to be explicit in naming colors, particularly green. “It’s crazy green, the whole book,” she says. “Lexington is the greenest place I’ve ever lived.” Similarly, where in Bright Dead Things, Limón tells a lot of stories and anecdotes, in The Carrying she is very present in her thoughts and experiences.
As it turns out, these shifts in focus have another, altogether unexpected source. While putting Bright Dead Things together, Limón was diagnosed with chronic vestibular neuronitis, which can cause bouts of vertigo. “If I’m really having vertigo, it’s pretty intense and I really have to focus,”
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New Mexico Land of Contrast: Images and Thoughts by Humberto Gutierrez
While admiring the sunset from the bell tower of Santa Fe’s La Fonda Hotel, it occurs to me that the sunset represents the contrast and diversity that New Mexico enjoys. The sun’s light makes life possible on this earth but also functions as a massive hydrogen bomb. How ironic, life and death all in one.
Living together in the state of New Mexico is a very diverse group of communities: Indian, Spanish, Mexican, Spanish American and Anglo. At the same time, this heterogeneous group lives in a place where the first atom bomb was developed and exploded.
New Mexico’s history is a sequence of encroachments of the area’s communities by waves of newcomers claiming the land as their own; from the early native peoples to the arrival of American fur traders.
New Mexico is the home of Los Alamos National Laboratories, where the first atom bomb was designed and built, and White Sands Proving Ground, where that bomb was exploded. At the same time, Santa Fe is the home of the New Mexico Museums of Natural History and Science that elegantly exhibits the story of our earth, from the Big Bang to the present day.
What a contrast the state presents; the Big Bang, the birth of our universe, and the atomic bomb, as it’s inventor, Robert Oppenheimer, described it as the “destroyer of worlds” that when detonated looked like “the radiance of a thousand suns.”
Walking through the Rio Grande’s gorge, where ancient petroglyphs can be seen, and visiting the communities and museums of New Mexico, my senses are immersed in the state’s natural beauty and invigorated by its Indian, Spanish, Mexican, and American cultures. My kudos to New Mexico for investing vast resources in its many fine museum celebrating the state’s rich natural history, scientific, and cultural heritage.
Humberto’s books are at Amazon Kindle
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Carolina Herrera: A Woman’s Experience During The 1910 Mexican Revolution
Price: $.99
File Size: 49 KB
Publisher: Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez (October 15, 2005 – Revised: December 9, 2012)
This is a biographical sketch of Carolina Herrera, a Mexican American woman who grew up during the deadliest social and political upheaval in Latin American history. Mrs. Herrera gives a unique perspective of being raised in two different cultures in the midst of the Mexican Revolution and all the social and economic reforms that followed.
Written by her son, Humberto Gutierrez, this biography intertwines Mrs. Herrera’s memories with historical details. Mr. Gutierrez creates a sense of the atmosphere and life of his mother during one of the most significant events in the 20th century.
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Getting to Know You Better
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Publisher: Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez (August 31, 2008)
Editorial Reviews
Getting to Know You Better is an article written by a father, among the millions, whose children grew up with their mother. It is about his relationship with his grown daughter.
It is a warm hearted story of emotional growth for both individuals and a good insight into Generation X.
The writer explains how Generation X is not a homogeneous group and how they represent cynical disdainers, traditional materialists, hippies revisited and Fifties Machos.
Read this interesting analysis about parental relationships in the divorce age.
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Getting to Know You
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File Size: 59 KB
Publisher: Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez (August 31, 2008)
Editorial Reviews
This article is about the relationship between a non-custodial father and his grown daughters. It addresses with humor and candor the delicate dance of a loving, but out-of-the-house father starting a new relationship with his now adult daughters. Humberto’s description of a weekend spent with one of his daughters will make you chuckle and may bring a tear.
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Electroluv
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File Size: 49 KB
Publisher: Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez (August 31, 2008)
Electroluv is an entertaining and sensuous story about Ed, a character out of the Greek classics, who does not want to know the truth about the relationship between his daughter and his second wife.
The setting is a small town in Northern California, well known for its pastoral beauty and peaceful way of life.
The story documents the struggles and aspirations of Mexican American Immigrants, a group that has largely been ignored by most fiction writers in this country.
Electroluv’s main character, Ed, is a High School Principal in Ukiah California, he crafts a definitive tale of the trials and tribulations of a single parent.
Helena, his beautiful and voluptuous wife, stirs the pot by betraying Ed’s trust.
This is an interesting and important tale that will excite your senses.
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Dating after Fiftyish
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File Size: 52 KB
Publisher: Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez (August 31, 2008)
Editorial Reviews
Funny, funny article about dating after fifty.
This is a well researched article about baby boomers and others in search of a mate. It focuses on Internet dating but the scope of the article goes beyond just Internet dating.
This informative and humorous article describes the difficulties of finding a mate when time is short and the rules of the institution of marriage have changed.
The author describes, in some detail, his own experiences with Internet dating. His experiences are insightful and delightful. In addition his experiences make for great conversation.
The article also includes general characteristics of the fifty plus single, divorced, or widowed population.
His advice to prospective mates is honest and refreshing.
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Poems by Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez
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File Size: 683 KB
Publisher: Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez (August 31, 2008)
Editorial Reviews
This photopoem collection is written in a simple, clear, and very personal style. It combines personal experiences and intimate feelings expressed in a poetic form. The author’s photographs of the places in which the poems were inspired are combined with the text. The poems range from tender and loving experiences to playful poems that were stimulated by the San Francisco Bay Area, its festivals, and its cultural diversity.
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Party Girl by Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez
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Price: $.99
File Size: 7 KB
Publisher: Humberto (Tito) Gutierrez (August 31, 2008)
Editorial Reviews
A poetically written short story. It is about the dangers of falling in love, Internet dating, and a woman who symbolizes what psychologist C.J Jung calls the “anima” personality. She is a woman who “…has no conscious critique of her own actions and motives…she may be domestically minded, she may wish to be good and to live an orderly life but when men come around her something is stirred and she acts automatically …she delights to gain power over men…”
Read this powerful story about a man who gets swallowed up by Party Girl in San Francisco.
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