From the Introduction . . .

This short book dovetails the new with the old, the imagined with lived experiences, cementing this mosaic of possibilities. Some terrifying moments are encased in chrysalises of beatific clarity and certainty. . . . These poems lead us as readers to search for answers in ourselves. I am not talking about profundity (though there are numberous profound moments here); in essence, I am speaking about how those simple overlooked glimpses at our common lives tend to rise to the troubled surface of the poetry.  . . Gotera paints the score in brilliant, bold, and brave strokes across an encompassing canvas. . . . A tension through juxtaposition is what Vince Gotera's Dragonfly achieves in a miraculous light that sobers the mind. Characters ease into each other's dreams, taking us along with them, and we are better and more complete because we have humbled ourselves long enough to peer through the eyes of these sojourners.

Poems from Dragonfly . . .

MIRACULOUS DRAGONFLY Tutubi Milagrosa -- a Tagalog phrase emblazoned across this sack of jasmine rice, also in Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Lao, English, and Thai: a concert of tongues, scripts, pictographs. But the crudely drawn dragonfly cruising the names seems hardly a friendly miracle: metallic globes for eyes, skeletal legs from a giant mosquito, hairy carapace like some gene-fused nightmare from a low-budget movie. Abdomen shaped like a missile -- a penile sting. Not gossamer wings but helicopter blades: Cobra chopper streaking over silky jungle mist hovers, cybernetic killer machine poised on a stream of fire, molten metal. No. Dragonfly out of my childhood is delicate, a four-year-old's handspan from wingtip to wingtip. Almost sunset near the Rizal monument in Manila's Luneta Park -- cicadas in full choir, singing a canticle. A little boy in khaki shorts, a scrape on one knee, stands still then takes a step like a tightrope walker in line with the slender tail of a jade and ultramarine dragonfly. The boy's gaze, his whole being, funneled into fingertip and thumb. For a moment, a small universe of utter beauty and grace in his hand, my hand -- intricate shimmer of wings, the eyes iridescent jewels.   "ARE YOU EXPERIENCED" In the Church of Saint Jimi, purples and blues played in the gold haze of the spotlight. A glass butterfly slicing through Spanish forests on ebony nights. At Monterey, Jimi's hips had thrust vermillion into white hot flames. Strumming with lips, fingers, tongue -- Hendrix had spiraled into our brains, fired the wicks of our secret candles. We fed on his crystal bones like vampires at some vile feast. How could we have known how brittle he really was? That the prince was just a mirror? His flesh, only flesh?

Praise for Dragonfly . . .

Dragonfly is a welcome collection of poems. . . . In a simple, straightforward style, Gotera begins by writing about a father's tender love for his son. Poem by poem, and ever mindful of the big picture, Gotera goes on to explore the painful contradictions of cultural identity with dark humor, wisdom, and compassion.

Vince Gotera's Dragonfly has exciting images, like fine photography packed into a chapbook. These are spirited poems about legends exposed, or missed and forgiven -- and about ordinary people accepted and honored for what they are.

To order a Dragonfly, click here. Sorry, Dragonfly is out of print, but
used copies do show up in used and rare bookstores from time to time.

To return to Vince's homepage, click here.

URL: www.uni.edu/~gotera/books/dragonfly.html
Created by Vince Gotera on 29 November 1997.
Revised on 30 November 2007.