Trochemoche: Poems

"The voices of TROCHEMOCHE are truly unforgettable." --World Literature Today"In fusing childhood experience of working life, love and family with current labors and lusts, ...these peoms make clear their voracity." --Publishers Weekly"Chicano poet Luis J. Rodríguez is a writer to watch...and read." --MultiCultural Review"Each of his tender poems is an unabashed machine of transcendence, a hunk of primary meat to feed the primary poetic hungers." --Richard Silberg, Poetry Flash

The poems in this collection are more recent ones by former gang member, street guy, Rodriguez. Some are not as lyrical as they might be, in fact, it is a hit and miss collection. However, what this book really has going for it is a passion for the art and a passion for his variety of subjects. All the mechanical skills in the world cannot replace a love for your art. Rodriguez has this and more. In this volume there is great humor and great sadness, love, bitterness, loneliness and great strength, the strength of a poet-warrior.

after reading his other book La Vida Loca, i was left with a craving for more. Although his poetry is rather different, it still seems to capture the same vividness, and reality of what life on the streets is like. Being a native of chicago it was nice read some of the descriptions of places that i grew up around. I could feel his perception of this gray city we live in. There are few books that can capture what it is to grow up in urban America and make it seem so real and at the sametime beautiful.