Includes bibliographical references.

Foreword / Francisco Lomelí -- A certain man -- In the cannery the porpoise soul -- Mar 3 -- Let me talk of the years/500(L.A.1969) -- Gallery of time -- Rebozos of love -- We have woven -- Sudor de pueblos -- On our back -- [Let us gather in a flourishing way] -- [Quetzalcóatl no sorrow] -- [Ipal Nemohuani] -- [Lops chapulines verdes vuelan] -- [Arizón maricopa tempe tu tierra roja] -- [Vamos a cantar] -- Exiles of desire -- Exiles -- Black tenor on Powell Street -- Children of space -- The dreamboxer -- At the Exodus Gym/Valencia Street -- Module metropolis : documents -- Literary asylums -- Nightpainters ; the dusk of La guardia Nacional of El Salvador -- War voyeurs.

Facegames -- Cimabue, Goya, beginnings -- Inside the jacket-- Crescent moon on a cat's collar -- Under the sombrero of Reagan's coiffure -- Inferno St. -- My mother's coat is green -- The man with the cactus heart -- Odalisque -- Movieola -- Foreign inhabitant -- Akrílica -- Kaos beneath the buttons / acrylic in blue -- Kaos debajo de los botones / akrílika en azul -- Suicide in Hollywood : Lupe Vélez (circ. 1923) / Serigraph of a Mexican actress -- The boy of seventeen -- Quentino -- The secret of my arms -- El secreto de mis brazos -- Quentino's journal : fragments -- Exile Boulevard -- 24th & Autumn -- She wants the ring like he wants the suit of scars / but -- Ella quiere el anillo como aquél quiere el traje de la cicatriz / pero -- Radio couples -- Nuclear green night : choreo-poem in 2 scenes -- Arc -- Grafik -- Gráfika -- Night train to Tuxtla --- Tatarema -- One is for Maáx, one is for Jabalí -- Memoria(s) : from an exile's notebook of the future -- City paint-- Norteamérica, I am your scar -- Fuselage installation -- Writing by the hand -- The sea during springtime -- Iowa blues bar spiritual -- Alligator -- Letter to the hungry students of Berlin -- The roots of a thousand embraces ; dialogues -- I. Mobius -- IV. Jade Mother Goddess -- IX. Tropical parrots -- XII. Style, genre & craft -- XIX. The game of color -- XXVIII. The barber sculptor -- XXXVII. The mirror in the canopy -- Love after the riots.

Border-crosser with a Lamborghini dream -- Angel wrestler (with blonde wig) -- Simple poet constructs hunger -- Young Kuramoto -- Lord Jim -- Five directions to my house -- I found myself in the studio of a tabla master -- We are all saying the same thing -- Lotería cards and fortune poems : a book of lives -- La lotería -- La palma -- El fruto -- El vuelo -- El maíz -- El fuego -- El ferrocarril -- La serpiente -- El diablo -- La víctima -- La canoa -- El cometa -- La rosa -- Thunderweavers / tejedoras de rayos -- Xunka -- Pascuala -- Maruch -- Makal -- Giraffe on fire -- Beneath your skin -- Bajo tu piel -- Notebooks of Chile Verde smuggler -- Óyeme, Mamita : standing on 20th & Harrison -- New York City angelic : Josh, my son, said -- Undelivered letters to Víctor #8 -- I, Citlalli "La Loca" Cienfuegos : sutra on the additional counts of suffering -- Undelivered letters to Víctor #10 -- June journals 6-5-88 -- Undelivered letters to Víctor #9 -- June journals 6-13-88 -- June journals 6-25-88 -- I, Citlalli "La Loca" Cienfuegos : sutra on the notebook -- I, Citlalli "La Loca" Cienfuegos : sutra on the audience -- Óyeme, Mamita : I am that paper -- The five elements -- Wood -- Fisher of poets -- Follow Różewicz -- Fire -- The trains of Alcalá de Henares -- La Plazita -- Water water water wind water -- Earth -- The glue under -- Will you visit the rubble museum -- I am merely posing for a photograph -- K's mother speaks of her years in Kuwait -- Poster -- I walk back nowhere -- Metal -- Artist paints a flower -- We sip tea and spoon gruel -- Yard sale in mid-April -- I forget the date -- Enter the void -- The women tell their stories -- A Chagall appears -- A percentage will survive -- A few x's raise their tendrils -- Let me tell you about my father, she says -- This is my last report -- Water -- Descending Tai Shan Mountain -- 19 Pokrovskaya Street -- Let me tell you what a poem brings -- jjj.

"For nearly four decades, Juan Felipe Herrera has documented his experience as a Chicano in the United States and Latin America through stunning, memorable poetry that is both personal and universal in its impact, themes, and approach. Often political, never fainthearted, his career has been marked by tremendous virtuosity and a unique sensibility for uncovering the unknown and the unexpected. Through a variety of stages and transformations, Herrera has evolved more than almost any other Chicano poet, always re-inventing himself into a more mature and seasoned voice. Now, in this unprecedented collection, we encounter the trajectory of this highly innovative and original writer, bringing the full scope of his singular vision into view. Beginning with early material from A Certain Man and moving through thirteen of his collections into new, previously unpublished work, this assemblage also includes an audio CD of the author reading twenty-four selected poems aloud. Serious scholars and readers alike will now have available to them a representative set of glimpses into his production as well as his origins and personal development. The ultimate value of bringing together such a collection, however, is that it will allow us to better understand and appreciate the complexity of what this major American poet is all about."--Publisher's description.

National Book Critics Circle Award.