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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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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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The Stafford Challenge: Month 5 Games (Revised)

  A Revised Version About Month 5   During that time period, I got a steam deck.  I use it all the time to unwind and think things through.  I don't commit to long rpg's anymore, and am sticking with rogue-lite/likes or simulation games where I just own a card shop or a farm.   I'm having a hard time with the concept of stories along with video games now these days.  Sometimes, things just happen and happen.   Anyways, here's an example of the poem I wrote this month: Radical Dreamers For tonight, let’s forget about meaning. Give in to hyperbole enough to amplify litotes: the hitched breath upon my hand grazing the side of your body, the way your back tries to slide further into me to feel the most of my chest. Don’t hear my iambs. Please. Let’s just continue to where I’m in control on how I construct my lines. Enjambment feeling out of place; we can’t differentiate space as minutes or hours.
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The Stafford Challenge: Month 4 Doubutsu (動物) and Mono no Aware (物の哀れ); Animals and the Temporariness of Things

 Credit to user anu-nand from Reddit for the photo.   I've been reading a lot of Kobayashi Issa and Kobayashi Issa insight recently.  I recommend  David G. Lanoue translation and insight of Kobayashi Issa's work as it has great readings, analysis, and examples withing the work.  I keep thinking of his book Write like Issa: A Haiku How-To where Lanoue writes:   Issa's concern for small, weak, alone, and oppressed creatures began with a genuine and sincere effort to imagine the world as experienced by them.  He then affirmed his connection with fellow beings acknowledging a shared reality in which he was not living on a higher plane looking down on them but, instead, was on their level, commiserating with them.   If you look through some of Kobayashi's varied work (I recommend https://haikuguy.com/issa/ ) you'll see the subject matter of Issa's haiku has animals like frogs and flies, mosquitos and crickets.  So I wanted to write about animals...
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