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My Debut Poetry Collection, "This is A Love Poem, Listen" Out Now

My Debut Poetry Collection, "This is A Love Poem, Listen" Out Now

Darrell Dela Cruz’ new book, This Is A Love Poem, Listen , earns its punctuation mark not only as an exclamation, but in the imperative delivered to the reader: pay attention. An aching honesty shines through these poems that lay bare the complications inherent in any love, whether that of parent, lover, country, or a god. Sometimes desolate, sometimes triumphant, but always with emotional precision, Dela Cruz’ speaker navigates the losses of the past, “like a cross an altar boy struggles to hold up” to arrive at a hard won self-acceptance. “Repeat, repeat. It is one way of learning,” he says, “even through continuous endings.” Listen up. You may find you didn’t really know what a love poem can be after all. A compelling read. Sally Ashton  Author Listening to Mars Editor-in-Chief of DMQ Review Santa Clara County Poet Laureate. 2011-2013  ---------- These poems are ocean glass at dawn. They call us to wade in, slowly. We soon realize the struggle of riptides, the com...
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Analysis of "The Summer A Tribe Called Quest Broke Up" by Hanif Abdurraqib

 Poem Found Here: "The Summer A Tribe Called Quest Broke Up" by Hanif Abdurraqib    How much should a reader know about a reference?  I didn't know what summer A Tribe Called Quest Broke Up.  I also didn't know what songs they were famous for.  So I looked them up.  Can I Kick It? Yes, you can!  I remember that song.  A quick wiki read showed that they broke up in 1998.  And I'm there.  At least my memory is there: outdoors in the neighborhood during the summer: chilling out with some friends or people from the neighborhood.  The music fills the backdrop as it would be on some 104.9 or 99.7 around where I lived.  But we don't start out with music we start out in color, "all them black / boys in the 'hood."  I find the color interesting and then the mention of the boys in the 'hood because it feels like we're opening up to a movie or a visual memory.  The structures of adjusted lines brings a feel that the reader ...
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The Stafford Challenge Month 11 and 12: Stumbling into Finishing / You are Not Alone

  This past month and a half has been the busiest month -- working through what my next steps are after my position sun downed, figuring out where and what to apply to, but also how poetry fits into my life now.  During this time, I wrote haiku.  It's something that comforts me and helps me focus.  Three images or parts -- one line at a time, and one word at a time.  Sample below: No New Year's Haiku  until the third day; cashing  my final paycheck.   But there were other things going on the end of the year.  My boyfriend went to the ER, and I drove up to San Francisco and took care of him for a bit: cooking, taking him to the hospital, watching What's My Line. Constructing poems  helps calm my mind. I write a  poem a day sort of. Toward the end of this process, poems were written on different digital areas -- for other poets, for gaybrosover30, in a e-writer where I need to type up the poem again.  I got there, but I need to ...
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The Stafford Challenge Month 10: Traveling

  In my head is the Utada Hikaru song "Traveling."   I only remember the refrain and never really looked at the lyrics in translation.  This part sticks out to me the most: Frolic with the waves, seduce the clouds At last, we meet Blame it on my youth, I give it away too quickly ‘Tis all but dust in the wind  This makes me think of the allure of traveling.  You can act a certain way, but those memories are temporary compared to how a city or a place remembers you.  Well, usually.  The shot above is of Chicago when I went on the architectural boat tour.  Chicago was a revelation to me of younger people appreciating the arts from poetry to plays.  I visited the Poetry Foundation, went to a reading and discussion.  I visited Steppenwolf theater, which the production of Amadeus was really good.  Being back here in San Jose/San Francisco, it's not like people aren't into the arts, but it's me carving out a usual routine in familiar setti...
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The Stafford Challenge Month 7 and 9: 14 Lines or Longer

This one [...] Going from 10 words or less to fourteen lines or longer was a challenge I wanted to give myself.  I thought it's the perfect length because I could surely write two sonnets a day.   Nope. I love a good form poem, especially a sonnet, but it's not my strong suit in two a day challenges.  Instead, I just let the thought extend further to see where it took me.  Two things helped in this challenge. 1.  During this time, the Remarkable Paper Pro Move came out.  It's an e-writing tablet that can fit in my pocket.  I take this everywhere, and I'm able to write in places like restaurants, in my car at the beach, at work.  It's definitely made it possible to jot down whatever thought that crosses my mind. 2. On October 4th, I was invited by Rachelle Escamilla to come down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium at night from 7:00-11:00 to see her read.  I've been to the Aquarium many times in the day.  It was when I was there three years...
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The Stafford Challenge Month 6 and 8: 10 Words or Less/Fewer

  I stopped writing in July and August.  I am grateful for the time with the VONA's Writer Workshop this past end of June, and am honored to be and learn with such great poets.   To write at that high level, I gave it everything I had -- put a lot of thought with each word, mine and theirs.  I was just exhausted afterwards.  I haven't really fully recovered yet.  I have to write an equivalent of two poems a day for two months -- hence the title of month 6 and 8.  I'll be caught up by 10/17.  I have to write two poems today. So the choice for writing two poems a day for a month is the short form. I studied a lot of short form: a love of haiku, cinquains, Li Bai, Issa, Basho, Williams, Bly, Knott, and Armantrout.  It's hard. Yes the shortness of the poem can keep attention spans, but every word and spacing is delicate. Shifts meaning and breath.  The poem has to make you think longer than you read it. Ex. Tell Don’t Show Just tell me...
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