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    Laughing Out Loud, I Fly: Poems in English and Spanish
    Laughing Out Loud, I Fly: Poems in English and Spanish
    Laughing Out Loud, I Fly: Poems in English and Spanish
    Ebook81 pages1 hour

    Laughing Out Loud, I Fly: Poems in English and Spanish

    By Juan Felipe Herrera and Karen Barbour

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    About this ebook

    From U.S. Poet Laureate Juan Felipe Herrera, one of the most prominent Chicano poets writing today, here are poems like sweet music

    Awarded the Pura Belpré Honor for this book, Herrera writes in both Spanish and English about the joy and laughter and sometimes the confusion of growing up in an upside-down, jumbled-up world—between two cultures, two homes.

    With a crazy maraca beat, Herrera creates poetry as rich and vibrant as mole de olé and pineapple tamales...an aroma of papaya...a clear soup with strong garlic, so you will grow, not disappear. Herrera's words show us what it means to laugh out loud until it feels like flying.

    Juan Felipe Herrera's vibrant poems dance across these pages in a dazzling explosion of two languages, English and Spanish. Skillfully crafted, beautiful, joyful, fun, the poems are paired with whimsical black-and-white drawings by Karen Barbour. The resulting collage fills the soul and celebrates a life lived between two cultures.

    Laughing out loud, I fly, toward the good things, to catch Mamá Lucha on the sidewalk, afterschool, waiting for the green-striped bus, on the side of the neighborhood store, next to almonds, José's tiny wooden mule, the wise boy from San Diego, teeth split apart, like mine in the coppery afternoon . . .

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateFeb 23, 2016
    ISBN9780062459824
    Laughing Out Loud, I Fly: Poems in English and Spanish
    Author

    Juan Felipe Herrera

    Juan Felipe Herrera is the US Poet Laureate and was inspired by the fire-speakers of the early Chicano Movement and by heavy exposure to various poetry, jazz, and blues performance streams. His published works include 187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross the Border: Undocuments 1971–2007; Border-Crosser with a Lamborghini Dream; Mayan Drifter: Chicano Poet in the Lowlands of the Americas; Thunderweavers / Tejedoras de rayos; Laughing Out Loud, I Fly, a Pura Belpré Honor Book; Américas Award winners CrashBoomLove and Cinnamon Girl; Calling the Doves / El canto de las palomas, which won the Ezra Jack Keats Award; and The Upside Down Boy / El niño de cabeza, which was adapted into a musical. He has received the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry as well as a Guggenheim Fellowship, and previously served as California Poet Laureate. He has taught at both California State University, Fresno, and University of California, Riverside, and held the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair in Creative Writing. He lives in Fresno, California.

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      Book preview

      Laughing Out Loud, I Fly - Juan Felipe Herrera

      Dedication

      For Stephy Robles Gonzalez, the girl who goes laughing

      —JFH

      To Jenny and Heidi

      —KB

      Epigraph

      y una codorniz un florero un tintero

      un real de vellón un mirlo

      un cuento un lápiz un botijo . . .

      & a quail a flower vase an inkwell

      a plugged nickel a blackbird

      a story a pencil a jug . . .

          —Pablo Picasso

      from Hunk of Skin

      Contents

      Dedication

      Epigraph

      A carcajadas, yo vuelo

      Laughing Out Loud, I Fly

      Tío Beto empieza con piloncillo

      Uncle Beto Begins with Piloncillo

      Esmeralda, la cantora, vino y dejó una maraca pintada

      Esmeralda, the Song Woman, Came & Delivered a Painted Maraca

      Chico, el mero Chico, así, Chico

      Chico, the Smallest, Just Like This, Chico

      Cuando la cartera conocío a mi tía

      When the Mail Carrier Discovered My Aunt

      En el caldero mexicano de Mamá, una cebolla nace

      In Mama’s Mexican Clay Bowl, An Onion Is Born

      Otra vez despierto con un ajonjolí y un chícharo cabeza verde

      I Wake Again with a Sesame Seed & a Green-Headed Pea

      ¿Quién quiere correr conmigo?

      Who Wants to Run with Me?

      Está en el café, está en el frijolito negro

      It Is in the Coffee, It Is in the Tiny Black Bean

      Tengo muchos calcetines, unos de alas

      I Own Many Socks, Some with Wings

      Fuí al mercado y compré bellas

      Went to the Marketplace & I Bought Beautifuls

      Mesalina, mi amiguita vestida de ramas

      Mesalina, My Friend Dressed with Branches

      Me perdí en las cuentas blancas del maíz

      I Lost Myself in the White Corn

      La enchilada que me regaló el carnicero

      The Enchilada the Butcher Gave Me

      Cuento ristras de chile

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