Dionisio D. Martínez was born in Havana, Cuba and now makes his home in Tampa, Florida. Although Martinez never received a formal college education, his poetry has been hailed as original and contemporary, and he has been called a “formidable talent.” He has been awarded fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Whiting Foundation.
More By This Poet
Rest before you sleep
Rest before you sleep You’ll be walking for hours
then as usual away from home your shoes
in your hand your feet not yet used to the road
Perhaps they need to feel the gravel
to know where they’re headed
A woman I knew who lived mostly in the woods
mentioned the...
Hysteria
It only takes one night with the wind on its knees
to imagine Carl Sandburg unfolding
a map of Chicago, puzzled, then walking the wrong way.
The lines on his face are hard to read. I alternate
between the tv, where a plastic surgeon...
Flood: Years of Solitude
To the one who sets a second place at the table anyway.
To the one at the back of the empty bus.
To the ones who name each piece of stained glass projected on a white wall.
To anyone convinced that a monologue...