The Concrete River: Poems

By Luis J. Rodriguez

A mesmerizing collection of poems of urban pain and immigrant alienation, humming with a current of genuine beauty and the pulse of life The Concrete River’s poems are dispatches from city corners that CNN viewers never see, that few dare visit, and that fewer still manage to escape. Rodríguez sings corridos of barrios and busted Chicanos trying to make it in L.A. and Chicago, from ballads of Watts’s broken glass to blues played alongside a tequila bottle under an elevated train. But the music also captures moments of true beauty amid the hard urban surfaces, where the cries of the ’hood “deliver sacrifices / of sound and flesh, / as a mother’s milk flows,” while love and community offer renewed hope.   This ebook features an illustrated biography of Luis J. Rodríguez including rare images from the author’s personal collection.  

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Media
• Release date: Jun 12, 2012
• ISBN: 9781453259092

Luis J. Rodriguez

The son of Mexican immigrants, Luis J. Rodriguez began writing in his early teens and has won national recognition as a poet, journalist, fiction writer, children's book writer, and critic. Currently working as a peacemaker among gangs on a national and international level, Rodriguez helped create Tia Chucha's Cafe & Centro Cultural, a multiarts, multimedia cultural center in the Northeast San Fernando Valley.

Book preview

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Reviews for The Concrete River

[spoko_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Rodriguez is a really original poet. His style is very honest—brutally so&#151;but once in a while there are these real glimmers of beauty in it. Enough so that it keeps you reading, and keeps you engaged. Above all, though, it's real.