Colcha

Aaron Abeyta

• Publisher: University Press of Colorado
• Year: 2001
• Print ISBN: 9780870816154
• eBook ISBN: 9781607320821
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Ancient Poetry
• Index: Literature

Winner of a 2002 American Book Award
Winner of the 2002 Colorado Book Award in Poetry

"The natural voice at work in the poetry sings of one human life as if it were our own. I loved listening."
—Rita Kiefer, author of Nesting Doll

"This just may be one of the best books of poetry I have ever read. . . . This is the kind of writing that give poetry a good name."
—Mike Nobles, Tulsa World

"Abeyta's poetry amazingly captures this struggle with poems that are simultaneously tortured and thankful, celebratory and melancholy, earthly and ethereal. . . . Poet Abeyta beautifully captures the hardships of living in rural Colorado."
—Blue Sky Quarterly

"Abeyta writes about family, friends, and famous (and infamous) locals. His approach is intimate and daring while avoiding the self-absorbed, coffee-house clichés we fear. Yes, death plays a role in the connection of community and the land, but these poems are sly rather than dark, modulated rather than graphic, sweet rather than maudlin."
—Wayne Sheldrake, Colorado Central Magazine

In Colcha, Aaron Abeyta blends the contrasting rhythms of the English and Spanish languages, finding music in a simple yet memorable lyricism without losing the complexity and mystery of personal experience. His forty-two poems take the reader on a journey through a contemplative personal history that explores communal, political and societal issues as well as the individual experiences of family and friends. With his distinctive voice, Abeyta invites people of all cultures to enter his poems by exploring the essence of humanity as expressed by his particular Hispanic culture and heritage.

Marked by intimacy and deep sentiment, Colcha not only acquaints us with the land of Abeyta's people, but also reveals the individuals from his life and family history in the most colorful and delicate detail. We meet his abuelitos (grandparents) in poems such as "colcha" and "3515 Wyandot," and hear of their connection to the tierra and its seasons, their labor and its bounty presented both viscerally and lovingly. We also meet the nameless people: the rancheros and the herders and the farmers, the locals in their pick-up trucks, and the women who make the tortillas. Abeyta's reflections on the plight, loves, joys, failures, and exploitation of the common person in such poems as "cuando se secan las acequias," "untitled (verde)," and "cinco de mayo" belong to the literary heritage of such poets as Pablo Neruda, Federico Garcia Lorca, and Walt Whitman.

Colcha is not just for those who love poetry, but for all people who wish to be moved by the music of language and, while listening, perhaps to gain some personal insight into their own lives and cultural traditions.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• introduction: tierra
• story
• antonito
• flight for life
• a letter to Guillermo concerning whyi must write
• the ditches of southern colorado
• el lugar de mi naciemiento
• cuando se secan las acequias
• tio Willie
• zoot suit jesus
• bones of my people
• regard for the dead
• tan poquito el amor luego perderlo
• apishapa my heart shaped sister
• johnny redshirt please call your mother
• colcha
• atlantic
• thirteen ways of looking at a tortilla
• castigando el santo ramon fernandez
• pronoun poem
• the title of the poem
• untitled (verde)
• trail to los cuates
• a letter from my journal to juan
• the mountains here are named after blood
• a letter to an adopted son
• santa fe girl
• the distance between us
• instructions on how to write a pinche suicide note
• untitled
• discussions with a ghost of his own creation on why he cannot go north
• cinco de mayo
• coal train
• december 20th
• i like the way the singer of the song tells jesus
• poem in c minor
• a river poem for someone i never knew
• for the intentions we hold within the silence of our hearts
• 3515 wyandot
• mixed metaphor (inspirational hymn)
• salems
• winter after itself
• the gifts the mountain kept
• independence day