Skip to Content

azul / lejos

By Pablo Miguel Martinez

the math of dance
the math of breath
counting 4 / 4
with / on us / you
heartbeat’s meter
Lully’s baton
the up the down

peninsular thought
etched by the briny vastness
no easy sailing ’round it
I pray for         strong gusts
                        full masts
Voyages in English
the textbook’s name
part France   part isle
neither mine
I stand in the crow’s nest
searching for the far
blue of language
my anguished cartography

our pleas to Heaven
a newborn gazelle wobbling
swiftness soon enough

Added: Monday, July 14, 2014  /  Used with permission.
Pablo Miguel Martínez
Photo by Amada Chávez Núñez.

Pablo Miguel Martínez's collection of poems, Brazos, Carry Me (Kórima Press), received the 2013 PEN Southwest Book Award for Poetry. Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Sandra Cisneros praised Brazos, Carry Me as her favorite book of 2013. His chapbook, Cuent@, is from Finishing Line Press (2016). Martínez's work has appeard in numerous publications, including Bilingual Review / Revista bilingüe, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, and Gay and Lesiban Review. Martínez has been a recipient of the Robert L.B. Tobin Award for Artistic Excellence, the Oscar Wilde Award, and the Chicano/Latino Literary Prize. His work has received support from the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation, the Artist Foundation of San Antonio, and the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture. Martínez is a Co-Founder of CantoMundo, a national retreat-workshop for Latina/o poets.

Other poems by this author