Unknown Words by Roberto Mendoza Ayala is a markedly literary collection; not that it is at all precious or pretentious, but rather that its author is very conscious of the fact that this is literature, an artful construction of language, not merely spontaneous outpourings, angry diatribes or personal laments.

One of the author’s great themes of wonder involves the magical chemistry of words interacting and combining like the elements, together with its complement, the power of the human mind.

These poems boldly embrace complex ideas and feelings and represent serious and penetrating thought leavened with playfulness and irony, and illuminated by metaphors that often startle. —Robert Kramer

DEAD FLY

Behind these bars there’s a poem
waiting for his day off,
for a mind that will take him for a ride
among new ideas
and put him back
safe into his jail
—As if he wouldn’t even hurt a fly! —
while the curly locks of the air
catch fire outside.

BUY IT NOW