December 19, 2023: Fall Semester Finds: Espada’s Poem in Ethnic American Lit

[For myannual Fall semester reflections series, I wanted to share some of the newtexts and ideas I encountered this semester. I’d love to hear things youdiscovered or rediscovered this Fall in comments!]

As was thecase with the subject of yesterday’s post, I first discovered the poems of MartínEspada through assigning them for a class, in this case my redesignedEthnic American Literature course. Over the years since he’s become one ofmy favorite American poets, for all the reasons I tracedin this post among others. But that doesn’t mean there still aren’t newworks of his to discover (and I don’t just mean newly published ones, althoughhe does continue to producenew work), and this semester in Ethnic Lit one such poem of Espada’s jumpedout at me anew: “Heart of Hunger” (it doesn’t seem to be online in full anymore, but is well worth seeking out!). As we talked about during those classdiscussions (and I hope this goes without saying, but every discovery I’mhighlighting in this week’s series was due much more to our collective workthan my own individual ideas), what makes “Heart” particularly striking is the wayEspada moves back and forth between elaborate extended metaphors and painfullyconcrete imagery to create a truly multilayered poetic portrayal of theimmigrant experience in America, past, present, and future. I’ve been thinking andwriting about that experience for decades, and this powerful poem was stillable to open up new lenses on it for me, and I believe for everyone in ourclass.

Next Fallfind tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Other Fall finds you’d share?