Family Tree

Family Tree is the new collection of poems from award winning poet, Joaquin Zihuatanejo. This collection is a testimony of life and love that follows the journey of one barrio boy from street kid to street poet. These poems and stories vividly capture the essence of what it is to grow from a boy with dirty face who found refuge in a world of stories and poems to an award winning teacher and poet. Both open and closed forms collide in this tour de force that grabs the reader pulling him into the speaker's existence. You may find yourself reading and rereading these poems out loud as these poems were meant to have life breathed into them. The collection includes "e;Reinventing the Enemy's Language,"e; "e;HOPE 5 MILES,"e; "e;Final Exam for My Father,"e; all poems that Joaquin has performed in his one-man spoken word show and at poetry slams all over the country, but the bulk of the collection is made up of new poems that are vivid in their honesty and rich in their beauty. The collection concludes with a short story and an excerpt from the forthcoming novel, Guerro.