If Today Were Tomorrow: Poems (Seedbank)

Literature & Fiction

Ak’abal, Humberto

Poetry

MILKWEED EDITIONS *

A collection of poetry by one of the greatest Indigenous poets of the Americas about the vanished world of his childhood -- that of the Maya K'iche'. Aquí era el paraíso&nbsp;/ Here Was Paradise is a selection of poems written by the great Maya poet Humberto Ak'abal. They evoke his childhood in and around the Maya K'iche' village of Momostenango, Guatemala, and also describe his own role as a poet of the place. Ak'abal writes about children, and grandfathers, and mothers, and animals, and ghosts, and thwarted love, and fields, and rains, and poetry, and poverty, and death. The poetry was written for adults but can also be read and loved by young people, especially in this collection, beautifully illustrated by award-winning Guatemalan-American illustrator Amelia Lau Carling. Ak'abal is famous worldwide as one of the great contemporary poets in the Spanish language, and one of the greatest Indigenous poets of the Americas. Ak'abal first composed his poems in K'iche' in his mind before writing them down in Spanish. Key Text Features foreword biographical information poems translation Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts: CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in a text, including figurative language such as metaphors and similes. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.5 Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.5 Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot.

Aquí era el paraíso / Here Was Paradise: Selección de poemas de Humberto Ak’abal / Selected Poems of Humberto Ak’abal

Children's Books

GROUNDWOOD BOOKS *

Born from dreams, from stones that speak, from ordinary words (found not in the dictionaries but in the marketplaces), from the wrinkles of a grandmother’s face, from the laughter of the rain, the poems of Humberto Ak’abal bring us to a different way of listening to the world.\nWith a simple and direct touch, Ak’abal—writing in Maya K’iché—gathers the beauty, pain, sadness, and anger that is felt in contemporary Guatemala. His poetry, presented here in Spanish and English, also provides a bridge across a cultural divide that has plagued the Americas since the conquest, giving Indigenous peoples, who have lived in the shadows for centuries, a voice.\nAlthough there have been Indígenas writing in Spanish since the colonial era, receiving little attention until the past few decades, they remain largely unknown in English-speaking North American and European cultures. In the Courtyard of the Moon makes a profound contribution to correcting this injustice for scholars and lovers of poetry anywhere.

In the Courtyard of the Moon: Selected Poems (English and Spanish Edition)

Tia Chucha

Drum of Stone

Kettillonia

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Books by Ak’abal, Humberto