Andrés Montoya

Andrés Montoya (May 18, 1968 – May 26, 1999) was a Chicano poet.

Quotes

• …and i am learning to hope
  like a bird
  learns
  its first
  affair
  with wind
  and sun
  like an orange
  learns
  to take flight
  into the mouth
  of a boy
  in summer…
  • Excerpt from his poem “three thousand lost kisses”

• i have found
  the face
  of story
  lying again.
  i’m tired.
  i’m a moth
  on sunday.
  i’m rain
  looking
  for a cup’s
  crippled rim…
  • Excerpt from his poem “declaration”

Quotes about Montoya

• The late Andrés Montoya was my first influence, and the largest…He believed that poetry fueled personal, societal and cultural liberation. He wrote about the downtrodden, the poor, the factory workers and the drug-addicted. He beautified what some deemed ugly and taught me that poetry is for all the people around you. I saw what language could do. We talked for hours about poetry, politics and race. I had found my first brother in poetry…
  • From “Lee Herrick: Fresno taught me to write, dream” in The Fresno Bee (2015 Aug 27)