Bad Alchemy: Poems - Hardcover

Dionisio D. Martinez is an affiliate writer at the University of Tampa.

The "bad alchemy" identified in these poems is a malevolent force that turns the world into a surrealistic nightmare. A condemned man sees his dead self on a bus; a healthy man feels his body decompose after lightning strikes him; a woman with breast cancer places her husband's hand on her breast, realizing the connection between "content and shape." In 1965, when Martinez was only nine years old, his family was exiled from Cuba, moving first to Spain and then to California. "No matter where I go," laments the poet, "I carry foreign currency." In this displaced world, Martinez mourns the loss of his father and the hard life of his mother, finding solace in a variety of artists, including Erik Satie, Frank O'Hara, and Marcel Duchamps, among others. Always inventive, Martinez is the master of the memorable line: "In a history of closed doors, an open/window means everything." Recommended for all larger collections.
Daniel L. Guillory, Millikin Univ., Decatur, Ill.
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