Robles-Hernandez

Porcina: A Voice From the Shadows is a unique and compelling book of poetry. The author has led a fulfilling life despite suffering from a severe lack of self-worth. The book addresses the perpetuity of abuse as seen through the eyes of an abused being. Many of the poems in this book were written years ago. Sometimes the author wrote with the aid of a struggling love affair, often with quarts of black coffee; sometimes in the guest room of a friend, or in a parking lot in El Paso; sometimes from hot springs near Bishop, California or a cabin on San Marcos Pass by Santa Barbara. ＂I still remember the shock experienced after reading lines written days earlier.＂ The author says about some of his earlier pieces. Many of the poems in this collection retell the end of a relationship and attempts at others, including a May-December relationship that flew in the face of all logic and common sense. The intense emotions resulted in poems such as Obsession, Pedestal and Crimson City. Other pieces, like the surreal Vermillion Grass and Duwa Do, elicit unpredictable responses from the reader. While the tone remains strongly introspective, upbeat works and a number of short stanzas, have been scattered throughout. A number of poems and short works, such as Cokedale, Colorado, Pyramids and Stone Faces are lighter pieces that project the reader to a time and place of their own. Among the dozens of fine works, some readers consider Life & Death In Conjunction, a gritty look at childhood life in Montana in the 1950s, as an instant classic. The poems possess unusual word flow and nuances that pull the reader into the heart of the work.