Poetry allows syllables to resound in silence, sentences to fall into patterns, both visually and audibly, creating a rhythm out of language, giving speech a song. Victor Hernández Cruz's poems make Maraca: New and Selected Poems 1965-2000 shake through a sampling of the poet's work from his teenage years to his most recent. His poems reflect an understanding of sound, the sound of language off the tongue, and the capturing and communication of sounds through a verbal medium.
Perhaps Cruz's articulate manipulation of the audible world comes from his experience with speaking both Spanish and English; Spanish in the native Puerto Rico of his childhood, and English after his move to the United States. Cruz explores the duality of language by using both Spanish and English in his poetry, playfully experimenting with notions of a multi-lingual environment. He incorporates qualities of his Puerto Rican ethnicity and memories of his island home, as well as indigenous references, often expressed in Spanish, in poems describing the foreign American landscape and culture, giving the reader a glimpse of the surroundings seen from his open eyes and receptive mind. His poem "Los New Yorkers" exemplifies this technique. "Suena / I present you the tall skyscrapers / As merely huge palm trees with lights."
Cruz is sensitive to the rhythmic beat that pulses through the cultures of the environments he has experienced. Cruz's explanation of his poem "from New York Potpourri," Cruz captures the musical basis and creativity of his poetry. "The "Sides" are as if they were record sides, musical vignettes; they're all little observations of life in New York, the way it looks, the way it feels, the way in moves." Cruz's sensitivity to this movement of life captures the essence of his rhythmic, musical poetry.

Discovering Victor Hernandez Cruz's "Maraca: New and Selected Poems 1965-2000" on a book shelf is like strolling into a record store and finding a "Best of" album by Jimi Hendrix. Because Cruz, like Hendrix, is a revolutionary in his chosen art-both in his idiom of subject matter, as well as his use of poetic style. It's no coincidence I use an analogy of comparing this book to a record, or this poet to a musician. Cruz sings in much of the poems, such as when he lets off, "let him kill that/ drum if he wants to/ go ahead/ break it in half/ make talk/ make talk" in the poem "Out in the World." But in addition to the music, Cruz doesn't neglect his Puerto Rican roots and his fluency in Spanish. He peppers many poems with Spanish words and phrases, and offers up several poems written strictly in Spanish. However, these too play off the page at 33rpm, such as in the poem "The Sound of Love," which starts, "San pronto no se wis windos can el claus de la/ mañananana." An appreciator of poetry or music can simply say the words aloud and hear the inherent tune as the mouth forms the sounds of the poet and balladeer. In his subtle way, Cruz takes a political stance on everything in his existence, yet neither stands as an outsider nor forces his reader to choose a particular position. Instead, we are all natives of this poetic landscape while Cruz; "a true poet aiming/ poems & watching things/ fall to the ground" spins us through a text that deserves several listens. As he concludes in the poem "Today Is a Great Day of Joy," all readers will soon agree, "it is a great day."

Discovering Victor Hernandez Cruz's "Maraca: New and Selected Poems 1965-2000" on a book shelf is like strolling into a record store and finding a "Best of" album by Jimi Hendrix. Because Cruz, like Hendrix, is a revolutionary in his chosen art-both in his idiom of subject matter, as well as his use of poetic style. It's no coincidence I use an analogy of comparing this book to a record, or this poet to a musician. Cruz sings in much of the poems, such as when he lets off, "let him kill that/ drum if he wants to/ go ahead/ break it in half/ make talk/ make talk" in the poem "Out in the World." But in addition to the music, Cruz doesn't neglect his Puerto Rican roots and his fluency in Spanish. He peppers many poems with Spanish words and phrases, and offers up several poems written strictly in Spanish. However, these too play off the page at 33rpm, such as in the poem "The Sound of Love," which starts, "San pronto no se wis windos can el claus de la/ mañananana." An appreciator of poetry or music can simply say the words aloud and hear the inherent tune as the mouth forms the sounds of the poet and balladeer. In his subtle way, Cruz takes a political stance on everything in his existence, yet neither stands as an outsider nor forces his reader to choose a particular position. Instead, we are all natives of this poetic landscape while Cruz; "a true poet aiming/ poems & watching things/ fall to the ground" spins us through a text that deserves several listens. As he concludes in the poem "Today Is a Great Day of Joy," all readers will soon agree, "it is a great day."

Cruz writes with such expression and feeling. Enjoyable reading