Plancha Press is an inprint of IR. At Plancha Press, we are committed to highlighting the poetry of Texan writers.
As of 2022, we are not currently accepting any poetry manuscripts.
PRAISE FOR AMAPOLASONG:
“It’s a reason for celebration! A new book by our hero! Jacinto Jesús Cardona’s work goes straight to the soul, penetrates chatter, clarifies memory, air, hope and precious humanity.”
—NAOMI SHIHAB NYE, Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems, Cast Away: Poems for Our Time, The Tiny Journalist
“Amapolasong makes me want to have libro breath, breath made from reading, saying, and singing the jaunty, wry and wise Star-Spangled Spanglish captured by poeta, Jacinto Jesús Cardona. These pages are a warm and uplifting Chicano embrace offered by the unique and singular lexicon of this true poeta de la gente. Cardona delivers a lyrical memoir novella set as histories and testimonios essential to understand the region of South Texas, filled with characters like the Number One Small-Town Fry Cook, Don Anguiano, el mayor piscador, and the poet himself appearing in a number of poems, as a teenage bookish bato who struggles with baseball, but not with his khakis, his joyful curiosity, or his sparkling spinners. This is a book that opens the door the magical voice-world unique to the language of our bilingual people, and its hard truths are hard-won with so much tenderness for a people and so much music in its tenderness. Lleno de encantos, these poems will keep readers of all ages inspired and wondering what magical word-paquete will star-spangle-sparkle up the next line. This word-mundo is a creative festival of poems that forms an añil bath for anyone needing a thought-cleanse from too much of today’s muck and mugrero.”
—NATALIA TREVIÑO, VirginX
“Amapolasong is a juicy linguistic experience. Wondrous. These poems are succulent. They quench the reader’s soul in these terribly parched American times.”
—LORI MARIE CARLSON-HIJUELOS, Cool Salsa, A Path to the World: Becoming You
I remember riding my fenderless bike
to la panadería del pueblo
sometimes I would go alone
sometimes I would dream
I took abuelo by the hand
I remember pan dulce tasting even sweeter
after confessing my sins
at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
nothing like dulcified bread
for crucified bones
I remember standing in front of the glass displays
telling el panadero I’ll take one of these
and one of those and one of these
unlike the cool pachuco who came in
asking for pan de polvo un regalo
y un hueso azucarado to go
I had not mastered the names of pan dulce
so imagine my thrill imagine the authority
in my chavalón bones when I returned
asking for dos huesos azucarados
two sugared bones to go
I remember pan dulce
la Virgen de Guadalupe
bordered by blue neon lights
and how the smell of canela
reminded me of abuelito’s piloncillo skin
