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)