Some of the Light

25 years of writing from one of our most gifted Latinx poets, featuring work from early explorations of machismo to new meditations on life as a single father, immigrant detention, and spiritual inquiry

Some of the Light gathers the first 25 years of Hernandez’s award-winning poetry, offering 28 new poems and a glimpse at the trajectory of a rising contemplative American author.

At its core, Some of the Light contains collected poems of love, told through the lens of a single father raising two children alone in the borderlands. They are at times intimate and confessional, ranging from personal relationships to spiritual inquiry, from human rights to the environment, while between the cracks of the poems are poetic contemplations, chronicling the passing days of the pandemic.

This latest work by Hernandez reveals a writer whom former US poet laureate Juan Felipe Herrera calls “a titan—unafraid to take to the road, get his hands dirty, to fully immerse himself in the world of his subjects.”

Some of the Light is a part of Beacon Press’s Raised Voices poetry series, established in 2021 to raise historically excluded voices and perspectives, and to celebrate poetry’s ability to access truths in ways no other form can.SOME OF THE LIGHT

Endling
Refraction #1
Father of Clarity
A Basic Understanding
Refraction #2
Single Parent Soliloquy (& The Joy of Kites)
This City
Refraction #3
Self Portrait at 46
Time Capsule
Limerence
Unqualified Poem
Refraction #4
Settling
Sandalwood
Salvador
The Poet’s Return
Refraction #5
Hometown Ode
Ish
Tik Tok
Brown Lotus (A Performance)
Her Majesty’s Last Stand
Variations on This Land
Refraction #6
Sleepless Nights (Thich Nhat Hanh Is Dying)
A Grocery Store
The Talk (Talisman for Salvador)

NATURAL TAKEOVER OF SMALL THINGS

Home
Brown Christ
The Day Johnny Tapia Died on My Sidewalk
Undelivered Postcards to Lydia
San Joaquin Sutra
Natural Takeover of Small Things
Instructions for the Altar
Flying Parallel
My Name Is Hernandez
Adios, Fresno

CULTURE OF FLOW

Culture of Flow
How to Get to the San Joaquin River

SKIN TAX

Mama’s Boy
I Rub My Hands
I Arrive Late
I Pissed on Little Ricky
Perched on the Face
If I Could Tell You
Enter Madrugada
I’m Going to Put Virgil Down
When Young Andres

Acknowledgments
Publication Acknowledgments
About the Author“An indispensable primer to an accomplished poet who seems only to be getting started.”
—Booklist, Starred Review

“A titan—unafraid to take to the road, get his hands dirty, to fully immerse himself in the world of his subjects.”
—Juan Felipe Herrera, former US Poet Laureate

“Some of the Light arrives to remind us that Hernandez has been turning over the stones, cradling them, and tumbling them in his mouth until he can taste and recite every fissure and form that must be sung. It awakens the inner light that empires, trials and tribulations, others, and even the self have attempted to extinguish and failed. Hernandez lets the light radiate, and we must follow.”
—Anthony Cody, author of Borderland Apocrypha

“What does it mean to refract and be a refraction of the world we inhabit? In Some of the Light, Tim Z. Hernandez reminds us that memory is only a confluence of our desires—to hold on—to rebuild from the intimacies of loss toward a reclamation of self. He cleaves open language—with all its gorgeous failures.”
—Felicia Zamora, author of QuotientTim Z. Hernandez is an award-winning author, research scholar, and performer. His work includes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and screenplays. He is the recipient of numerous awards, most notably the American Book Award, the Colorado Book Award, and the International Latino Book Award. Hernandez holds a BA from Naropa University and an MFA from Bennington College, and is an associate professor with the University of Texas at El Paso’s bilingual MFA program in creative writing. He lives in El Paso, Texas, with his 2 children.