A Life’s Rambles/Ramblas de una Vida
Bilingual Spanish-English Poetry by Joe Polacco
Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry Joe Polacco incorporated poetry into his teaching and research. Much of his overseas professional experience was in Spanish-speaking countries and hence Joe’s poetry took on a Spanish alter ego. In each of 28 chapters, Spanish-English “mirror images” are presented in rhyme, along with some prose background.
Joe’s rambles took him from his Brooklyn birthplace to stops in Spain, Argentina, Honduras, and Cali, Colombia. The poetry cast is akin to an autobiographical excursion.
The “genres” are multi-stanza limericks (limer-epics), couplets, quatrains, acrostics, and lyrics to two blues/ballads.
The moods range from the poignant and sentimental to the giddy and earthy.
From the back cover:
From Brooklyn Streets to the barrios of Cali
from momma’s pasta to a neighborhood bialy
Our lives become a meandering ramble
as we put fate and faith in each daily gamble
De las calles de Brooklyn a los barrios de Cali
desde la pasta de mamá al matutino bialy
La vida es un largo camino sinuoso
Ay! que cada día sea bien venturoso
Cover Artist: Danielle Hrdina
Odes are presented to loved ones, colleagues, students, and to cherished places.
Ahh, but there is more: Joe exercises his biological background to answer in rhyme/rima:
why we humans tend to the obese, why some male moths fall prey to rapacious female spiders, how a corn plant “mines” iron while killing root-eating grubs. And more still.
Joe’s collection can also be a resource for students of Spanish, if only as an example of pitfalls to avoid.
A Life’s Rambles/Ramblas de una Vida Available Online
Amazon
Joseph C. Polacco - Author 