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Selected by Jenny Browne, 2017 poet laureate of Texas, these poems draw a picture of one of America’s vastly sublime yet most audaciously independent corners. In these diverse voices, the state is a lovely and painful contradiction of space and meaning. Texas is a place “where blind catfish cruise” and wild asters grow. It’s a frame of mind where Jenny Boully writes “the history is unending” and Mexican American studies professor Christopher Carmona can “feel the slowness of time.” Jorge Luis Borges wrote of it as “an endless plain / Where a man’s cry dies a lonely death.” Victoria Chang writes that “there is so / much sky that even birds / get lost."
Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson describes her hometown as a “fiercely loving city tougher on the outside / but smooth as pecan shells,” and Naomi Shihab Nye reminds us to “be patient, sure there’s lots of bad around, / but more room for good too, with all this empty.” Whether it is Joshua Edwards imagining his photographer father or Primo Feliciano Marín’s declaration “Hail Texas, fraught with charms unknown,” these voices, past and present, give us a glimpse into the poetic soul of the nation’s most willful state.
Poets include Robert A. Ayres, Curtis Bauer, Jan Beatty, Layla Benitez-James, Jorge Luis Borges, Jenny Boully, Catherine Bowman, Susan Briante, Bobby Byrd, Christopher Carmona, Aline B. Carter, Rosemary Catacalos, Victoria Chang, Hayan Charara, Joshua Edwards, Tarfia Faizullah, Carrie Fountain, Vievee Francis, Mag Gabbert, Miriam Bird Greenberg, Lucy Griffith, Aaron Hand, Fady Joudah, Jim LaVilla-Havelin, Emma Lazarus, J. Estanislao Lopez, Primo Feliciano Marín, Pablo Miguel Martínez, Walter McDonald, Jasminne Mendez, Townsend Miller, Ange Mlinko, Naomi Shihab Nye, Shin Yu Pai, Cecily Parks, Emmy Pérez, Octavio Quintanilla, Iliana Rocha, Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson, ire’ne lara silva, Jeff Sirkin, Margo Tamez, Lao Yang, Loretta Diane Walker, Emily Winakur, and Matthew Zapruder.
Introduction by Jenny Browne
When I Stopped at the Exxon in Jourdanton by Robert A. Ayres
Happy, TX by Curtis Bauer
The Saddest Song by Jan Beatty
Snow Falling on Zebras by Layla Benitez-James
Texas by Jorge Luis Borges
The Yellow Rose of Texas by Jenny Boully
Heart by Catherine Bowman
Better Than Paris by Susan Briante
One Day during the Pandemic, an Earth Day Poem by Bobby Byrd
Something about Texas by Christophe r Carmona
Blue Celestial by Aline B. Carter
Borderline by Rosemary Catacalos
Marfa, Texas by Victoria Chang
The Symbolic Life by Hayan Charara
My Father at 32 by Joshua Edwards
Aubade: Summer, Texas byTarfia Faizullah
Ode at Skateland Texas by Carrie Fountain
Still Life with Summer Sausage, a Blade, and No Blood by Vievee Francis
Dear Chaos by Mag Gabbert
A Heron’s Age by Miriam Bird Greenberg
Lonestar by Lucy Griffith
One Year in Texas by Aaron Hand
Palestine, Texas by Fady Joudah
Fore Tell by Jim LaVilla-Havelin
In Exile by Emma Lazarus
Independence Day in West Texas by J. Estanislao Lopez
Texas by Primo Feliciano Marín de Porras
Gone Yanaguana by Pablo Miguel Martínez
Wishing for More Than Thunder by Walter McDonald
In the Texas Summer Heat by Jasminne Mendez
A Letter from Texas by Townsend Miller
Lean Steer by Ange Mlinko
Texas Remedy by Naomi Shihab Nye
A Day without an Immigrant, Dallas, Texas by Shin Yu Pai
Texas Natives by Cecily Parks
Existence Is the Poem by Emmy Pérez
Hombres by Octavio Quintanilla
Another Selena Poem by Iliana Rocha
Rosary Beads by Andrea “Vocab” Sanderson
To the South by ire’ne lara silva
At Our Disposal by Jeff Sirkin
This place on earth by Margo Tamez
Jesus in Cowboy Boots by Loretta Diane Walker
Uvalde by Emily Winakur
First Morning in West Texas by Lao Yang
April Snow by Matthew Zapruder