Month: April 2018
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Ode to Instagram
I stayed away from the thing for a long time. To me, it was just another waste of entire days, something that got in the way of reading poetry or having coffee with a real human being across the table. And, it is, or it can be. But, that’s a question of self-discipline. I stayed…
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Your Death Is Not a Blip
We all die. But, most people don’t like to think about that, which I think is a mistake. I find it helpful to consider my own death from time to time. It reminds me I’m alive. Poets help me to meditate on my own demise. A good poet will look death straight-on, and not flinch.…
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Writing From the Classroom: Dana Gil, Ghost-Seer
This is an essay by Dana Gil, who took my class “Literature and Contemporary Issues.” She has a real knack for storytelling, and this story, well…something to tell around the campfire. My grandmother, María Elgega, died three weeks ago. She died in her sleep, at her nursing home, my mother at her side. She had…
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What I Reap From Mamá’s Stories
It’s been fun to post my mother’s memoir here on The Writing Bull. And it’s just as fun, and even more meaningful, to listen to her stories. Which, I have heard all my life. I have known, for decades, about her murdered father–my grandfather Pilar Reyes–who was shot in the street by some guy named…
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The Massacre of 1932
After my father’s murder, and my mother and I had to flee, my grandfather ¨Papa Polo” was the main figure in my life. Grandmamá had one of the women to be responsible about my care, which was not the best but nevertheless made my character of a survivor all through my entire life. Because of…