Imagine the Angels of Bread

This is the year that those

who swim the border's undertow

and shiver in boxcars

are greeted with trumpets and drums

at the first railroad crossing

on the other side

this is the year that the hands

pulling tomatoes from the vine

uproot the deed to the earth that sprouts the vine,

the hands canning tomatoes

are named in the will

that owns the bedlam of the cannery;

this is the year that the eyes stinging from the poison that purifies toilets

awaken at last to the sight

of a rooster-loud hillside,

pilgrimage of immigrant birth; this is the year that cockroaches

become extinct, that no doctor

finds a roach embedded

in the ear of an infant;

this is the year that the food stamps

of adolescent mothers

are auctioned like gold doubloons,

and no coin is given to buy machetesfor the next bouquet of severed heads

in coffee plantation country.

"Imagine the Angels of Bread"

Questions??

Danielle Baysari

Dillon Hollinger

Small Groups

• Get into groups 4-5 people.
• Have each group come up with an overall theme of the poem. (If you agree with one of our two themes, try to find new evidence).
• Present each groups theme with at least 2 quotes to ”back up” the claim.

Our themes:

1) Time world takes charge and engages in necessary changes.

2) Lack of awareness of the world’s current crises

The Elements of Poetry

• Sound
• Tone
• Speaker

Possible Themes

1) Time world takes charge and engages in necessary changes.

• “This is the year” (line 1).
• “[T]he border's undertow and shiver in boxcars [will be] greeted with trumpets and drums at the first railroad crossing on the other side” (23).
• “[T]he food stamps of adolescent mothers are auctioned like gold doubloons” (42).

2) Lack of awareness of the world’s current crises

• “[R]evolvers, stove-hot, blister the fingers of raging cops..." (14)
• “[E]yes stinging from the poison that purifies toilets awaken at last to the sight of a rooster-loud hillside" (35).
• “[G]ods, they too drown if plunged into the river"(59-60).

Espada's Background

• Born in 1957 in Brooklyn, New York
• Politically inclined family
• Worked in the field of “law”
• Attended University of Wisconsin-Madison.
• Politically driven

The Contemporary Era

"Imagine the Angels of Bread"

By Martin Espada

(Pg. 1382)

• The Contemporary era, beginning in 1945, is commonly known as a part of history in "living memory“; in other words this era continues to be present in current generations.

• The poem was published during Bill Clinton's presidency (effected the country's economical and ethical standing which influenced Espada's piece).

This is the year that squatters evict landlords,

gazing like admirals from the rail

of the roofdeck

or levitating hands in praise

of steam in the shower;

this is the year

that shawled refugees deport judges

who stare at the floor

and their swollen feet

as files are stamped

with their destination;

this is the year that police revolvers,

stove-hot, blister the fingers

of raging cops,

and nightsticks splinter

in their palms;

this is the year that darkskinned men

lynched a century ago

return to sip coffee quietly

with the apologizing descendants

of their executioners.

This is the year that those

who swim the border's undertow

and shiver in boxcars

are greeted with trumpets and drums

at the first railroad crossing

on the other side;

this is the year that the hands

pulling tomatoes from the vine

uproot the deed to the earth that sprouts

the vine,

the hands canning tomatoes

are named in the will

that owns the bedlam of the cannery;

this is the year that the eyes stinging from the poison that purifies toilets

awaken at last to the sight

of a rooster-loud hillside,

pilgrimage of immigrant birth; this is the year that cockroaches

become extinct, that no doctor

finds a roach embedded

in the ear of an infant;

this is the year that the food stamps

of adolescent mothers

are auctioned like gold doubloons,

and no coin is given to buy machetes

for the next bouquet of severed heads

in coffee plantation country.

If the abolition of slave-manacles

began as a vision of hands without manacles,then this is the year;

if the shutdown of extermination camps

began as imagination of a land

without barbed wire or the crematorum,

then this is the year;

if every rebellion begins with the idea

that conquerors on horsebackare not many-legged gods, that they too drown

if plunged in the river,

then this is the year.

So may every humiliated mouth,

teeth like desecrated headstones,

fill with the angels of bread.

If the abolition of slave-manacles

began as a vision of hands without manacles,

then this is the year;

if the shutdown of extermination camps

began as imagination of a land

without barbed wire or the crematorum,

then this is the year;

if every rebellion begins with the idea

that conquerors on horseback are not many-

legged gods, that they too drown

if plunged in the river,

then this is the year.

So may every humiliated mouth,

teeth like desecrated headstones,

fill with the angels of bread.

This is the year that squatters evict landlords, gazing like admirals from the rail

of the roof deck

or levitating hands in praise

of steam in the shower;

this is the year

that shawled refugees deport judges

who stare at the floor

and their swollen feet

as files are stamped

with their destination;

this is the year that police revolvers,

stove-hot, blister the fingers

of raging cops,

and nightsticks splinter

in their palms;

this is the year that dark skinned men

lynched a century ago

return to sip coffee quietly

with the apologizing descendants

of their executioners.