Ernesto Trejo is a poet of mysteries and incarnations, of secret unnamed presences, of the magical interior spaces of childhood and the luminous floating world that flares and throbs, that burns in time. His poems struggle to defy nothingness and death by recreating other lives, by letting other stories enter into his own story, by seeking communion with the lost and marginal, the otherwise forgotten by witnessing, imagining, and remembering. The dark impassioned poems of Entering a Life are wholly alive to the Whitmanian imperative: “Who touches this, touches a man.”
“A truly mature and accomplished collection.” -Western American Literature
“Ernesto Trejo is a poet of mysteries and incarnations, of secret unnamed presences, of the magical interior spaces of childhood and the luminous floating world that flares and throbs, that burns in time.” -Edward Hirsch
“Ernesto Trejo’s poetry is filled with an extraordinary exuberance and vitality. These are poems of enormous humor and wisdom. Poignant, compelling, and vibrant in their imagery, Ernesto Trejo’s poems enfold us in realities that are both magical and luminous. These poems are like our fondest, wildest dreams – those which suddenly speak to us with the diamond-edged voice of true experience.” -David St. John
“Trejo is a poet of conjecture, a story teller of let’s say… one summer…, this is what happened… He writes with great invention a long-lined, ambitious poem as well as a short, refined lyric. In both instances, it’s evident that he cares about his subjects, namely family, friends, childhood in Mexico and his adult years in the United States, the everyday life he carves for himself, and that often romantic but shadowy figure calls “E.” Trejo has published sparingly over the years, and his first book in English is one we can learn from.” -Gary Soto
ERNESTO TREJO teaches creative writing at Fresno City College.
