Ana Maria Caballero

In Favor of Fantasy

April 12, 2016 by Ana Maria Caballero

Fantasy has it rough. It bears a reputation of being trivial, flashy, adolescent, and entertainment-driven. Indeed, some fantasy is. But, such a judgment is unfair to good fantasy, which is none of the above. Because fantasy is so blatantly allegorical, when it is good, it reveals a forthright understanding of how reality functions. And, when it is great, it resembles myth, with its godlike way of adding meaning to life. Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Buried Giant (2015) raised many literary eyebrows when it came out because it dared […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: book, fantasy, Kazuo Ishiguro, reading, writing

Porn, then Poetry

December 11, 2015 by Ana Maria Caballero

Of course, [pornography and poetry] probably benefit [from the Internet] for different reasons: pornography because people really want it a lot but are embarrassed to go get it in person; poetry because people don’t want it that much, so it helps if they can get it for free without ever even leaving their desk chairs. This excerpt was taken from an article that appeared in the AGNI blog titled “Wherever, However: Poetry Pornography and the Internet,” written by David Ebenbach. Ebenbach has […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: poetry, pornography, reading, writing

A Sudden Collapse of Ice

September 15, 2015 by Ana Maria Caballero

Poems can sometimes behave like short stories, like very short stories. They set the scene, bring the reader in and then leave them with an uncertain longing. In just fifteen lines, the poem below tells the story of two couples, of neighbors, of marriage, of winter. The title lets the reader know what to expect from the very beginning: there is to be a crossing over to an intimate landscape for a chilling view of the life of others. Chilling, perhaps, […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: books, literature, poetry, reading, writing

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The New Amerikan Thing

September 1, 2015 by Ana Maria Caballero

Juan Felipe Herrera’s story is a nice one. Born in California in 1948, he grew up picking crops with his migrant worker parents in the San Joaquin and Salinas Valleys. After graduating from San Diego High School, Herrera went on to complete degrees at UCLA, Stanford and the prestigious University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop. He has published over fourteen collections of poetry, children’s books, young adult novels and served as California’s Poet Laureate in 2012. His work is a key part […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: books, chicano, literature, mexico, poetry, writing

Early Mid-Life Crisis

August 18, 2015 by Ana Maria Caballero

There is an undocumented age crisis that occurs in the early thirties. Indeed, the onset of this decade might mark the actual “coming of age.” Eighteen is still shrouded by the incredulous, protective shield of childhood, as is any age before twenty nine. But thirty-three is different. It is lucid and stunned and dismayed at the same time. I held this notion as an inkling until reading the poem below by German poet Hans Magnus Enzensberger, which confirmed it as […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: aging, literature, poetry, reading, writing

Fortune’s Cookies

August 4, 2015 by Ana Maria Caballero

A friend recently sent me an upbeat, effortless Lawrence Ferlinghetti (b. 1919) poem that I immediately liked. And then immediately didn’t know if I liked. The poem is from Ferlinghetti’s record-breaking “A Coney Island State of Mind,” which was published in 1955 and sold over a million copies in nine different languages. The poet’s life story is worth reading. He is an orphan, veteran, journalist, world traveller, publisher (he was the first to publish “Howl“), painter, political activist and still-active ninety-something-year-old. Except for a few poems, […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: books, Ferlinghetti, poetry, reading, writing

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Better than a Great Song

July 21, 2015 by Ana Maria Caballero

Several years ago, British poet John Fuller wrote a poem with a bright future as a chart-topping pop song. Perhaps its catchy flow is due to the fact that it’s a strict villanelle, or perhaps it’s due to the fact that the poem is about unrequited, but not tortured, love. There’s just enough heartache to make it interesting, but no one is suffering too badly. Fuller is known for mastering traditional form and making it palatable. The villanelle for example can […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: books, John Fuller, literature, poetry, reading, writing

Abandoned Men

July 14, 2015 by Ana Maria Caballero

Brooklyn Copeland is a young, prolific poet who has published individual poems in venues like Poetry Magazine and The New York Times. She also has several chapbooks and full length poetry collections available. As readily available as her work is online to peruse, I found it hard to pin down. “Self-conscious” is definitely a word that came to mind. “Intentional” is another. But, then I also wanted to say “evocative” and “effective.” I considered “skilled” but then read a few […]

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Flirtation

June 23, 2015 by Ana Maria Caballero

Rita Dove was named Poet Laureate of the United States in 1993 when she was just forty years old. By then, though, she had written a few novels and several collections of poetry, including Thomas and Beulah (1986), which won the Pulitzer Prize. The poem below is not an example of how Dove confronts complex historical issues in her work, brings them home and makes them personal. Rather, it is a light piece, a flirtation. But, it’s summer now, officially, and […]

Categories: Ana Maria Caballero, ZiR • Tags: books, literature, love, poetry, reading, writing