About The Book

Award-winning writer Jimmy Santiago Baca is lauded for his talent in weaving personal and political threads to create a pertinent and poignant narrative. He addresses universal issues with vigor and passion, paired with emotional grace and vivid sensory detail, establishing him as a vital voice in American poetry.

Singing at the Gates is a collection of Baca’s work that stretches back over four decades—poems that revitalize the national dialogue: raging against war and imprisonment, celebrating family and the bonds of friendship, heightening appreciation for and consciousness of the environment. A career-spanning selection, it includes poems drawn from Baca’s first chapbook and recent pieces meditating on the significance of breaking through oppression. This book displays the breadth and depth of Baca’s poetic power—with irreverent charm and disarming freedom of mind and soul. The vital pulse of love abiding in these poems will affirm and reaffirm, for both longtime and newfound readers, his devotion to truth and beauty.

Praise

“[A] fiery retrospective collection. . . . Baca’s poems are warm and furious, feathered and drumming, plowed and tattooed, righteous and prayerful. His is a clarion and necessary voice, and this standout volume belongs in every library.” —Booklist

“This is rust-under-your-fingernails, dust-in-your-eyes, blood-in-your-mouth poetry. This is the kind of poetry that reflects the maddening of souls and chronicles a yearning for justice.” —American Way

“Jimmy Santiago Baca is one of New Mexico’s treasures . . . For anyone who’s ever had their life changed through art or words, [he] is a poet that speaks your language.” —Weekly Alibi