There is so much to appreciate. She is also a poet of what I like to consider working class sensibilities — direct, honest, but full of deep feeling, true feeling. In the 2007, the release of Streetwise Poems/Poemas Callejeros, Johanny shows us how deeply the streets run in her veins, the public and private ways her heart holds the love of family and their stories. No matter how much her work is anchored in an urban base, she is tethered always to la isla, to Puerto Rico and its sorrow and strength, always writing from a deep place of female dignity. Take a moment and read for yourself.
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Daughter of the City
I feel the streets in my veins
avenues
highways
alleyways
boulevards
roads without stop signs or lights or signals
live within me
circling the bewildering labyrinths of my being,
noises echo loudly at every corner,
each step banging like a hand on a drum,
horns demanding that others move out of the way,
shots crying farewell to their reasons for hate,
screams hiding by the anger of a barking dog.
Daughter of the city
citizen of hell
resident of purgatory.
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