Greetings from Heaven & Hell

A must-read, must-see follow-up to Ricardo Lira Acuña’s first stunning poetry and photography book "under the influence," "Greetings from Heaven & Hell" continues the raw, heart-wrenching confessional of the heaven and hell of: love and marriage, working and living in the city, writing, drinking, and making peace with himself after losing his father.

"Meet Ricardo Acuña: Cosmopolitan Poet from L.A.
You can’t see Ricardo at a reading, or listen to Ricardo, or read Ricardo’s poetry without being deeply moved. He’s all body language, fire and thunder, and razor-sharp insight. He tells it like it is, like his hero, poet Charles Bukowski, did: unvarnished truth, dark secrets, deep despair, brilliant humanity, and an unflagging appreciation for each precious or precarious moment of life. Ricardo speaks of everything: the good, the bad, and the ugly; but his optimism wins out every time, or at least by the end of his books.
Highly educated, with two college degrees (Stanford University in California and Columbia University in New York), Ricardo is truly bi-coastal in formal training and cultural experience. He was, as he says in his bio, “born and raised dirt-poor in Nogales, Arizona.” But he rose above such hardscrabble beginnings, winning a scholarship to a prestigious prep school as a teenager, and later living and studying in Paris, France. His artistry extends to photography, and his books are enriched with his photos from all over the world. Ricardo is the most cosmopolitan poet I know.
Yet his life has been filled with challenges that are amply reflected in his poems. In his book, Greetings from Heaven & Hell (Pichin Publishing, 2009), he speaks of “day jobs to pay for that high-faluting education.” He recounts mundane jobs he’s held, including working for farm workers and teaching high school English. But he’s never lost sight of his mission in life: “[I] know for certain that the only thing I need to do in life is write (or if not, I will drop dead.)”
Ricardo’s poetry is passionate and fast-moving, as this stanza from “let’s not argue, love” shows:
let’s not argue
love
let’s not dig the trenches
that turn into oceans
that turn people into their own islands
that turn lovers into enemy nations
for God’s sake
let’s not argue
love
let us go to sleep now....
that we may dream a good dream
when we awake together
Ricardo’s poetry speaks to today’s times, such as in “temp work”:
i fill out their applications take
their tests answer their
questions i watch them stuff
their faces at their desks joke
about birthday cake complain
about leaving early and
it reminds me of
denver-dog-days when
desperation gnawed at my
skinny belly because
of another bitch and i
don’t even want their jobs anyhow sad
and meaningless their impersonal
pool their clammy hands and bloodsucking
smiles when all i want is a
job
He paints literary portraits of people who appear to be loved ones, and of family events, oftentimes poignant and heart-breaking, as when he describes his father’s death, or broken love, or misguided youth. His poems are haunting in their starkness and reality, their sensitivity and pathos, whether they capture a moment in time, or describe a cycle of loss. Ricardo’s heart and soul are on vivid display in both of his books: Greetings from Heaven & Hell; as well as under the influence (Pichin Publishing, 2007)." - Thelma T. Reyna, Ph.D., http://www.latinowriterstoday.blogspot.com/