Chicana Chumash poet, Lorna Dee Cervantes reads her new poem, “Nothing Lasts” inspired by a line in Doug Peacock’s book, Walking It Off, “Nothing lasts but the land.” brTo read this and other poems, visit her at her home blog where she kicks off her spelling shoes and stops professing at LornaDice. You can also read mostly poems at her MySpace blog, “The Poems. The Whole Poem. And Nothing But the Poem.” To order her new book which is actually 5 books in one beautiful clothbound edition, DRIVE: The First Quartet directly from her click here and include order, dedication and shipping information. Thanks for listening. “Gracias a la Vida” – Violeta Parra Lorna Dee Cervantes Less

Poet Lorna Dee Cervantes reads a new poem, “A Viet Nam War Poem (The First Draft)” written December 6, 2006. Visit her blog at lornadice.blogspot for this and more poetry, prose and news. You can also visit her at MySpace and read the poem on her blog there. Less

To David Without Goliath From Penny Glass” by Lorna Dee Cervantes This long narrative poem is from my new book, DRIVE: The First Quartet which is five books in one in a beautiful cloth-bound first edition of 320 pages. For more information and to order direct from the publisher go to www.wingspress.com or order direct from the poet at my home blog, http://lornadice.blogspot.com for a mere $25. This poem also appears in a new 158 page manuscript of new and selected love poems, Una poca de gracia/ Bit of Grace, currently being auctioned off on her blog as a benefit for poet, Alfred Arteaga’s experimental stem cell heart treatment. Less

“He Was Far More Complicated Than That” He was the hugest heart in a helmet, grinning into his future, a purple sunset over Michigan’s former majesty—a full boy. a hunter and a camper—good thoughts all around. On his father’s Harley, with a grandfather’s Bible tucked in his war shirt, heaven on his sleeve, a sleek passage into duty—choice was an inheritance in the hours of ironing and polishing the buttons. His poetry on the lips of the survivors, lines about sacrifice and the selfless, believing conditions were improving—an expedition into history. He was indestructible. A winning force, a signature on the passing of time, a camouflage and ramrod boy, a fighter—he preferred peace, a lakefront home, the walls of collages introducing the chapters: posing Dragons, wrestling circles, a wedding day, the sun busting through the senseless trees—something like an animal huddled beyond the field—a trained sniper. “This is who I am.” Love. A misfire. “A Marine to the very end.” Endlessly. Copyright 2006 Lorna Dee Cervantes Less