Lord, Is This a Psalm?

Rating:
Summary: Warm, human, hilarious
Review: If you think poetry is obscure, leaves you scratching your head as to meaning, or that the words and phrases are pretty but don't add up to any personal meaning, then you haven't read Jack Agueros. His poetry speaks to his love of people, all inclusive of race, ethnicity, gender, and religion. He is a people's poet, speaking of the low income, ethnically mixed neighborhoods. We get his intimate talks with God, who he unashamedly addresses as a friend or a boss, who isn't doing such a great job. His shortest poem, Psalm: for Patience, "Lord, hurry up and give me patience!" -- represents his irreverant and humorous addresses to his creator. Even the most religious among us must surely wonder why there is so much suffering in the world, and why God doesn't get down here and fix it. Agueros is not afraid to ask straight out, yet he does so in a warm tone, without anger. He defends all people, women, gay/lesbian, the poor, people of color. He comments on what he sees around him, what he sees in the media, and what unfair things are going on in this world. Rather than accuse God of slacking off at the job, he addresses God's angels, the Angel in Charge of Consumer Fraud, the Angel of Economics, the Angel of Equations, etc. This is one of the few books that you will read entirely, laughing through most of it and then immediately start over and read it again. Finally some real live human accessible poetry, straight from the heart and suitable for high schoolers as well. Thanks to Jack Agueros for real poetry for the rest of us.