Samuel Hiram Duarte was born in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico in 1974. Along with his parents and brothers, he migrated to the United States in 1980, settling in California’s rich agricultural valley of San Joaquin and receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Fresno State University. His poetry has been featured in Flies, Cockroaches, and Poets, a yearly journal for the arts, and has participated in various poetry-reading venues. His work includes a short story compilation; The Spirit of El Chorumo, and a book of poetry; Seven Standard Roads. Currently, he is a Family Advocate in Guadalupe, CA and is working on his first novel; Ofelia and the Journey of the Monarch Butterflies. He lives in Santa Maria California alongside his wife Jessica and son, Kael.
Featured Poetry of Samuel Hiram Duarte
Rhythm
A firefly dances to the sound of a trumpet
to the beat of buckets
accordions,
timbales,
and tambourines
It dances up to my second story window
to a lively organ
technicolored guitars,
flutes,
and violins
It dances the way people dance out in the street
under sweltering midnight dews
glowing poetic beats
under one giant rhythm
clinking and clinging
offering one giant toast
to life
Lamentations
her graceful
conceptions
coalesced
into fabled
esoteric light
across a magnificent
imaginative sea
magnified through
diminutive dews
she continued
ricocheting fabled embraces
faltered through
advancements
unknown
reconstructing pretenses
run amok
through countless wars
deemed righteous
over our fellow men
Some prefer her that way -
Some prefer those bewilderments
she bestows
over placid expectations
of how things ought to,
but will never be
Untitled
I hid under your bosom
A heavenly sigh under your
Loving, motherly glare
While the frost ate away at our windows
And the hush of our sodden state
Pushed me further into your thighs
How lush it was
Inside that barren world
Where the burning ghost
took over
And your whisper-filled- mouth
Touched the sweetness of your skin
I was safer than your crawling fingers
Walking from one empty space to another –
I was safe-
My breath ricocheted
between you, me, and the outside world-
Until a loud tap hollered against the window
A light beam swooshed in
And I gasped myself back
From your heart
- Born back into the grayness
Of an otherwise perfect
World
Bolero Blues
An old man
Called old man
Blue
Strummed
Outside
A bar laced
With old string
Shoes-
With a lost mien
Of Spanish flights
Pop Culture
Jazzy rhythm’s
And replicas
Of an intermixing
Culture
Including
Blue grass,
Sky walks,
Dentil floss
With no teeth,
And a cane
Snapped off green
Juan Deer Cap
Yellow Caterpillar
Shirt
And a pair of red
Second time
Around pants
Withered stiff
Like his heavy hands
Gracing the lacing
Of his guitar
Longing to find
Solace
In an old
Bolero
Song
Copyright © 2010 Samuel Hiram Duarte
