Naomi Ayala's brief bio on the back of her book states that she migrated from Puerto Rico as an adolescent in the late 1970s. Her love of the country, its people and landscape, is richly described in her poetry.
Ayala has a strong voice which often expresses her outrage at social injustices. These are very political poems in the sense that Adrienne Rich once said "There is no difference between the personal and the political." In talking about discrimination, poverty and abuse, Ayala uses her poetry to evoke strong emotions in the reader, as in the poem "Poverty":
Two tea bags in your wallet
for when the day is done
& poverty at your feet
like a hungry dog
laps up the sweat of your calves.
Sometimes raw, sometimes caressing, Ayala's poetry takes the reader through Puerto Rico, its El Yunque rainforest and beaches, as well as its back alleys and crowded homes of the poor. She also uses her poetry to talk about her experience as a Latino in the U.S., as in "What am I?":
So praise
being ! I am myself
outside your words.
Praise any new word.
You will always
have to call me something.
This is Ayala's first collection of poetry. Her poems have also been published in the following periodicals: Kalliope, The Caribbean Writer, Callaloo, The Massachusetts Review, and Hip Magazine.
