Palabras in Each Fist

By Rebecca Balcarcel

Along with pieces called "breathtaking" by Naomi Shihab Nye, these poems twirl their skirts as they explore bi-cultural identity, growing up, a young mother's struggles, and the limits of language. Half Guatemalan and half Anglo, the speaker worries about "black-topped boys with butterscotch skin" who whistle at her, but loves how flowers "explode into curls of crepe." She doesn't understand Spanish or why tragedy jabs into our lives, but still she sings.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rebecca Balcarcel
• Release date: Mar 15, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301989096

Rebecca Balcarcel

Rebecca Balcárcel serves the students of Tarrant County College as Associate Professor of English. She took her MFA from Bennington Writing Seminars where she was awarded the Jane Kenyon Poetry Prize. Her essays and poems have appeared in over forty literary journals, including North American Review, Third Coast, descant, South Dakota Reivew, 5AM, Oklahoma Review, and Concho River Review. She received an Individual Artist Grant from NE Tarrant County Arts Council in 2010. Rebecca gives talks at libraries and schools. On her YouTube channel, she offers writing tips and literary analysis. Rebecca is mother to three and enjoys taking walks. Her past adventures include biking 1300 miles, skydiving, and nursing twins.

Book preview

Praise for Rebecca Balcárcel's chapbook, Ferry Crossing:

. . . the opening poem is breathtaking -- as well as what follows. -- Naomi Shihab Nye

Advance praise for Palabras in Each Fist:

. . . powerful emotional honesty . . . These poems are riveting and unforgettable, leaving the reader redeemed through the acceptance of self, radiant in the 'bright holiness of now.' -- Larry Thomas, 2008 Texas Poet Laureate

Palabras in Each Fist

by Rebecca Balcárcel

Copyright 2013 Rebecca Balcárcel

Smashwords Edition

Palabras in Each Fist by Rebecca Balcárcel is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

You may copy, share, and even include this work in your own creations, provided that you give credit to the poet and do not earn money from the sale of her work. Please purchase additional copies if you use more than a class set of four poems. Ask permission for uses beyond these by contacting the author. Thank you!

Acknowledgments

The author expresses appreciation to the following magazines in which these poems first appeared:

North American Review: Kitchen Clock and Guatemala

Muse Squared: Christmas Performance and Shoes

Clockwatch Review: Ferry Crossing

New Texas: For a Son and Ophelia

South Dakota Review: Crepe Myrtles

Sacred Journey: Watching Two-year-old Twins Eat Watermelon,

Ilya’s Honey: One Time, a Girl

Kaleidoscope: Tympanogram at Three Years

5AM: Teeth

Amarillo Bay: Visiting Tía

Red River Review: Against The Wall

Handmaiden: Questioning the Flood

Langdon Review: Ay, Yolanda!, Boy Picking Flower, Christening and Ave America

3rd Muse: Illiterate

Descant: Shoe-shopping

Diner: Interrupted While Reading

Many thanks, too, to Trilobite Press for publishing the author’s chapbook, Ferry Crossing. A few poems from that chapbook also appear in Palabras in Each Fist.

Ongoing appreciation goes to Pecan Grove Press and its late editor, Palmer Hall, who published the print version of Palabras in Each Fist in 2010.

Palabras in Each Fist

I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something. —Richard Feynman

Contents

Part 1: Alfabeto/Alphabet

Part 2: Palabras/Words

Teacher's Guide

Reading Group Discussion Questions

About the Author

Poem List

Part 1: Alfabeto/Alphabet

Guatemala

Walking the Lake Path

Crepe Myrtles