The Life Assignment

by Ricardo Alberto Maldonado

The speaker of the poems in The Life Assignment is reviewing his history. As if sorting through a box of photographs, the speaker sorts through relationships, trying to discern what was healthy from what was exploitative. Concepts of love are turned over and over in these poems: romantic love, love of family, love of country, self-love (or lack thereof). Often the speaker finds that what at first appeared to be caring, was insincere all along. When tenderness is in short supply, how can one protect himself? How can one find home? In his debut collection, Ricardo Alberto Maldonado bends poems through bilingual lyrics that present spartan observation as evidence for its exacting verdict: "We never leave when life is elsewhere. The clemency of men disappears / as does the light, tarring the roofs." An electric debut collection.

Genres: Poetry

100 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 2020

Reviews

[Erica Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maldonado is writing some of the most original, haunting poems in recent memory. He combines the political and personal with explosive language and a wry sense of humor.

[Elizabeth OH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heady and salty

[Bea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was taken away by the beautiful free verse of Ricardo Maldonado. A Lorca contemporáneo, provides a venue to those feelings and thoughts that were difficult to express freely back then. Still uses symbolism in a beautiful way, but topics of sexuality and grief are brought into the light frequently.


“… exhausted by desire in the dangerous ceremony of love”

“Unable to begin, under the incandescent ongoingness of this” I felt the grief and heaviness while reading this one. Goosebumps.

He uses alliteration just like Lorca did. Specially some of his alliterations in Spanish bring me back to my beloved verses from Lorca “verde que te quiero verde, verde viento, verde rama” that I learnt by heart and recited frequently.


“A la limón, a la limón iban los niños, Mamá.
A mecerse sobre la luna sobre monumentos marinos-a mecerse, como a punta de navaja.” Words that are not only written to be read, but to be tasted. And what a beautiful after taste they bring.


Really pretty. Can’t wait for more.

[K.K. Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

"I have memories / to revise."

"What I think is I would not understand / whom he has loved because I would want ours."

"I'd like to think I am trying to keep up, / anyhow, with my rage."

"How strange is the Kingdom / of Heaven. / Whose noise tracks by its own fire? Fifteen birds, plastered / in lemon, in lemon and the poetry of things? I get to negotiate with souls?"

"yet it helps to be proactive / about guilt and the adjective assigned / to us in lovemaking (reckless, confused)."

"Wisdom made interesting sorrow of my inbox."

"It is difficult - / not being hard on myself, but regardless / of the hyphenated / mind, I quit."

"Doctors trade aubades at late hours / inducing relief with prose."

"Maybe this is a poem about power. / Maybe this is a poem about love."

"Tal vez este sea un poema sobre el poder. / Tal vez este sea un poema sobre el amor."

"my repugnant heart will make me conspicuous"

"El cuerpo no es una metáfora. / El cuerpo no es una metáfora. / El cuerpo no es una metáfora. / El cuerpo no es una metáfora."

"Our theater confused the gods."

"Su teatro confundió a los dioses."

[DeeSoul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I begin. You begin. We begin often. How strange is the Kingdom
of Heaven.
- pg 35, "One Fish, Two Fish, Three Fish/ Un, Dos, Tres Pescados"

Reading this collection, I immediately thought about Jimin Seo's OSSIA, highlighting the relation between the original & English translations of many of the poems. There is an interesting consideration of what can be accomplished in both languages. In "In Defense of The Life Assignment," a line reads I was desperate under summer's/ isosceles. From the original Spanish, my translation app translates the line as I wept under the isosceles sky/star of June, even without presence of the words cielo or estrella. The distance between the versions are acknowledged & intentional, the book a constellation of mirroring, but not quite identical, abstractions. This is a book that asks for your full attention, & makes good on the investment.

[Nick Pulito · Rating 5 out of 5]

Luminous

Deft, fresh, infectious. It feels almost disingenuous to offer a “review” for a debut work that has been so thoughtfully constructed; hope to see much more from this poet in the years to come.

[Matthew Ducey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I deeply connected with some of the poems, but I wished the dual language components interacted more with each other.

[Carly Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fantastic book. Once I finished it, I sat for 10 minutes, in consideration for this book's tenderness, its syntax, its spells.

[Yesenia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful poetry collection.

[Gus · Rating 1 out of 5]

Another mid collection written by a white guy in power. The Biden of poetry.