Apples Rot on the Ground by Kate Padilla
$14.99
Stark, poignant and gut-wrenching poems detailing the racism and bigotry that existed for Hispanic families in early New Mexico & Wyoming. Padilla’s voice rings vivid and true, establishing herself as a poet whose work is worth returning to again and again.
–Marjorie St.Clair, author of Wild Women Write: Re-Connecting with the Wild Feminine; writing teacher & coach.
This short collection spans an astonishing array of gifted storytelling based on memories that punch then expand the heart. Weaving as a river through Wyoming to New Mexico, Padilla’s images are both stark and rich. In this wo-manifesto collection, the “podium” is Padilla’s, as she, fearless, screeches then soothes in lyrics of her rise to Latina strength, perseverance and individuality while challenging “the vaulted secrets of machismo.” Each poem seems to ask “how many lives have important stories that have never been told?” As I read the last line of Padilla’s collection, I want more…
–Mary Dezember, Professor of English and author of Earth-Maked Like You and Still Howling
Description
Apples Rot on the Ground
by Kate Padilla
$14.99, paper
978-1-64662-193-4
2020
Kate Padilla’s life path began in Taos, New Mexico, where her mother’s family settled generations earlier, then to Wyoming, where her parents found work, and back to New Mexico, as a federal lands manager, establishing partnerships with Mexico and offering environmental skills to indigenous Tarahumara. She’s a University of Wyoming graduate, worked as a journalist, a Senate staffer in Washington, D.C. and traveled independently with her spouse from Vietnam to Cuba to the Balkans. Now retired in Albuquerque, she focuses on family past with art and poetry.
Megan Baldrige (verified owner) –
There are so many truly beautiful, succinct lines in Kate Padilla’s poems about her mother, father and about her growing up that I wish I had thought of first. She is a master of the mean, clean beautiful line, some of which hint at “the vaulted secrets of machismo” which she grew up amidst. There are not awkward lines in any of these poems. Each poem tells an interesting story of her younger years in a compact way.