"I carry your smile
and faith inside like I carry
my dog's face,
my sister's laugh,
creamy melodies,
the softness of sunrise,
steady blessings of stars,
autumn smell of gingerbread,
the security of summer on a chilly day."
In the fifty poems included in this collection we are privy to love of all sorts...there is a multitude of voices and the many experiences that loving someone or something brings to a life. This astute and very accomplished poet and author includes poems that have Spanish language and an occasional translation. This is teen love magnified, written in free verse and a variety of other poetic forms. In order to give readers a heads-up about the variety, Pat Mora includes a definition on the facing page where needed.
The feelings are strong, and will be heard by any attentive teen listener. It is a great book for reading aloud to the group or for personal attention to the ups and downs of love. There is so much uncertainty for teens stricken by feelings of love, whether they be between a boy and girl, parents and child, friends, family, pets, social events, at school or elsewhere in a teen's world. Much of the verse written here speaks to that love and validates the feelings that overwhelm and engage teens at home and away.
The collection flows so well from one poem to the next and invites readers to return to poems that have personal meaning for them at this particular time in their lives. The voices are powerful, the poems intense and sensitive, and the many facets of love are explored with care and compassion for those sharing some of the same issues.
We are left with hope and love of self in the poem, My Song:
"So many memories,
and I'm still young.
So many dreams,
my song's just begun.
Sometimes I hear
my private melody grow,
then the sound vanishes,
but returns, I now know.
I've heard my heart break;
wounded, I've felt alone,
but slowly I learned
to thrive on my own.
I want to keep learning,
to deepen my song;
in whatever I work,
may my best self be strong."
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