Böcker utgivna av Pearlsong Press

In his third book of poetry, Fe¿lix Garmendi¿a celebrates the popular LGBTQ+ vacation destinations of Fire Island and commemorates Titania, a trans woman of Manhattan. In his first book, Flying On Invisible Wings, Fe¿lix lives parts of his lonely childhood, journeys to the USA, becomes triumphantly accepted. Contracts HIV, hangs on, HIV becomes undetectable. Finds everlasting love, gets married. Then, as if daring him to stay happy, Inclusion Body Myositis lands him in a wheelchair. He continues to live and love with his husband in Washington/Hudson Heights in Manhattan, and finds his poetic voice.Fe¿lix's second book, Poems of Reckoning and Hope, explores his neighborhood, the pandemic, and January 6 and its ramifications. He continues to hold out the possibility of hope through the USA's dire recokoning.Now, in his third book, Félix sails to Fire Island. Then we meet Titania, trans woman of Manhattan. As we read Fe¿lix's detailed poems about both, we enter the next stage of his life. And we cheer his deep and unquestionable support for and celebration of the people he knows and loves best.

Small town boy journeys from Ponce, Puerto Rico to Manhattan: a riff on many famous movies and books. Except in this case the boy is gay, confused, frightened, and trying to find where he will fit in and be happy.The story has a happy ending-of sorts. Boy from Ponce finds companionship, happiness, and his proud gay identity in the Big City. But it also has a sad ending-of sorts. Boy from Ponce finds out he has HIV, almost dies, gets almost well, then meets another illness-Inclusion Body Myositis. He is confined to a wheelchair. And yet-In the same year he becomes wheelchair-bound, the man rediscovers an old love: writing poetry. He begins to write. He writes more. He becomes adept. His poetry soars. "This," he says, "is what I should have been doing all along."As you read the poems of Félix Garmendía, you will say to yourself, "This is what I should have been reading all along." You will discern influences from Whitman, from Neruda, and also from the art of Frida Kahlo, with whom Felix feels a particularly strong kinship as a disabled artist. After all, he says, they both fly on invisible wings.In this book you will discover poems light as the summer art in Fort Tryon Park, poems as down and raunchy as a honky-tonk on Canal Street, poems as pensive and stately as the Statue of Liberty and her pedestal. For in many ways this book also pays homage to New York, Félix's fiercely loved home since 1988.Happy, sad, frightened, soaring, ecstatic, loving. Moods galore and then some. Images that magic you from deep anguish to utter excitement and bliss. Come fly with Félix. You will never read anything quite like these poems. You may even find your own invisible wings.