Andrew Navarro lives in Southern California where he works as a history teacher. His work has appeared in the Kelp Journal and is forthcoming in Cutthroat, a Journal of The Arts, and ZYZZYVA. He lives with his wife and two daughters.
Andrew’s poem “Abuelo” appears in the Fall 2020 issue of Carve, available here.
Tell us about your abuelo.
My grandfather’s name is Ricardo Guterriez. He was born in Michoacan, Mexico and he migrated to the United States when he was 18. He’s funny, loves food, tending to his garden, and spending time with his grandchildren. I see a lot of myself in him. This poem was written reflecting on a time where my family thought my grandfather was going to pass away. He had several health issues and ultimately was told he would need open heart surgery; a surgery the doctors were worried his body couldn’t handle. I remember seeing him transform from such a jovial person to someone who clearly had the thought of his own death weighing down on him.
Your piece is a prose poem. What does that free it up to do?
Michael Benedikt said that “There is a shorter distance from the unconscious to the prose poem than to the unconscious to most poems in verse,” and I tend to agree with that. It’s easier for me to get out of the way, if you will, of my own work when I write a prose poem; to let the language dictate its direction.
Your poem centers on human fragility and loss, but it does so by evoking natural metaphors: soil washed away by the rain, "the old heart in the large mountain of your chest." What brings these two themes together?
Well, I think it’s important to remember that humans are a part of the natural world. A fact so obvious it seems silly just thinking about it. However, it’s a fact that we tend to ignore, or forget, courtesy of our modern comforts. Yet, there’s a long philosophical and literary tradition of using nature to mirror human fragility and the limitations of our bodies. It’s archetypal. Which explains how this poem unfolded because using natural metaphors definitely wasn’t something I sought out to do. They were just the metaphors that came to me once I realized that I was writing a poem addressing my grandfather.
You're a history teacher. Do you talk about writing or literature with your students?
Of course! I fell in love with poetry in 8th grade, which is the grade level I teach. I am always looking out for ways to nurture any students who show an interest with writing. I talk poetry with my students and recommend writers to them whenever I can. I also use poetry as a way to spark discussion amongst my students. For example, I like to read them “Travelling Through The Dark” by William E. Stafford whenever we discuss ethics.