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

 

Thank you to Vuong Vu and Tourane Poetry Press for publishing my collection This is a Love Poem, Listen  


Buy a copy from me and be able to request things like:

*Blank Copy - Unsullen typography
*Signed Copy - My name next to my name
*Doodled Copy - If I knew how to draw, I'd draw
*Note Copy - One factoid on creative gibberish
*Haiku Copy - A short quick poem // maybe my own, or Issa, // Basho, or Buson
*Q/A Copy - Random question from my "Random Question Generator," and then a short answer.

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Praise of This is a Love Poem, Listen

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These poems are ocean glass at dawn. They call us to wade in, slowly. We soon realize the struggle of riptides, the complex relationship between a father and son, what love challenges when expecting fair conditions. The push and pull of memory, the turbulence of sexuality, the deep conversations in diaspora are intricately crafted in De la Cruz’ words. An old soul sings in this stunning first book.

Arlene Biala
Author of American Book Award winner her beckoning hands
Santa Clara County Poet Laureate, 2016 – 2017

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Darrell Dela Cruz's debut collection of poetry rests in a virtual space between the time of our ancestors and parents and us; plus the stinging reality of what it means to carry the weight of impossible dreams in this dystopian diaspora. But no matter the unknown, there will be love. Love as it is given to us, love as we are forced to accept, and love that we develop when it is too late to express. These poems are careful and moving and beautiful and lovely.

Rachelle Escamilla
Author of Space Junk from the Heavenly Palace (Black Lawrence Press 2023) 

Monterey County Poet Laureate, 2024 - 2025

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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 

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Darrell Dela Cruz’s poems are elegantly crafted explorations of the liminalities informing love, desire and faith. Meditative, sometimes droll, often poignant, Dela Cruz’s lyric reach effectively engages a large psychological expanse including relationships with family, personal identity, Jesus Christ, Buddha, friends and lovers. These are unflinching poems where syntax and lineation are instrumental in the mapping of life’s many intimate ruptures, each line a suture. One emerges from reading This is a Love Poem, Listen fortified, refreshed and grateful for this book of poems.

Robert S. Pesich
Author of Model Organism
Editor for Swan Scythe Press