Poetry. Latino/Latina Studies. These poems reveal the heart of a survivor. In the title section, the poet, caught in "the unspoken language of pain," escapes his beginnings only to find that the culture of violence has followed him. In the second section, "Meditations on Breath," he charts his journey to survival. In the last section, "Walking into My Mind," he contrasts the backbreaking manual labor of his day job with his real work, "to write/Love/Hold my children while rocking them to sleep/Children of the flesh/Children of the word."

Author City: ALBUQUERQUE, NM USA

Jason Yurcic was born in Santa Fe while his father was in prison. Soon after his release, his father was brutally murdered in a street fight. Yurcic grew up in Albuquerque with his grandfather, avoided a threatened jail sentence, and became a professional boxer at age twenty-three. Jimmy Santiago Baca helped mentor him in the writing of poetry. Currently, Jason conducts poetry workshops for prisons, schools, and colleges. His first play, The Little Ghost, was staged in June 2008 at the Santa Fe Performing Arts Center.

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http://www.yurcic.com/