top of page
Writer's pictureDaniel García Ordaz

Book Reviews: You Know What I'm Sayin'?: Poetry * Drama (2006, El Zarape Press)

Updated: Jan 31, 2021



"I really enjoyed the tempos and cultural experience of this collection." Read the very thorough review (including quotes from selections) at Martha's blog: Thanks, Martha Escuchen!

"This is a decidedly different read for me and I greatly enjoyed it. I do like to read poetry – I just haven’t done so for some time. I don’t always think of poetry in a sense of “tempo” but you couldn’t read this collection without feeling the depth of rhythm. I could hear the hip-hop or jazz beat with the rhyme and that made it fun to read."

***

C. A. LaRue likewise writes a very thorough review, with quotes from the poems, etc.: Word Play: Finding Innovation in Small Press Poetry from the Texas Borderlands June 4, 2015 – By C.A. LaRue –"In this age of social media and multiculturalism, language is more fluid than ever before. Poetry has been somewhat slow in catching on, but not so amongst writers of color, who have tended to be on the margins of mainstream culture to begin with. And nowhere is innovation more evident than in the poetic communities that hug the Texas borders.Primarily a spoken word poet, Daniel García Ordaz (better known as The Poet Mariachi) is one such writer that thrills with his unique use of language. In You Know What I’m Sayin‘?, his debut collection from McAllen-based El Zarape Press, he co-opts familiar American forms and reimagines them in a shifting vernacular infused with Hispanic flavors drawn from Harlem, S. Cali and the Rio Grande Valley." Read the full review here.

***

Edward Vidaurre, author of Insomnia, Beautiful Scars, Chicano Blood Transfusion, etc.: "Books are read, you know what i'm sayin'? But before I opened the pages to this classic from El Zarape Press (2011), I had been privileged to watch the author recite them at several events in south Texas. This collection seeps through my ears and plays a Miles Davis horn, puts me in the living room in East Los Angeles squeezed between my mom and dad watching El Chavo del Ocho.

"These poems are alive!"

***

Of course, there are other reviews out there. Please send me yours and submit them to GoodReads.com, Amazon.com, etc. Many thanks! Here's the link to the book via Amazon, where other reviews are posted, though the book is widely available.

15 views0 comments

Recent Posts

See All
bottom of page