The Theater of Night

Alberto Rios, the poet laureate of Arizona, manages to makes the most mundane aspects of living a flowing poetic journey. In THE THEATER OF NIGHT Rios shares the life of Clemente and Ventura, a couple living in the first half of the 20th Century along the US/Mexico border and in relating this simple 'life' he causes us to re-examine all of the prejudices and mounting ill-feelings that now surround the borderline between two countries. For that reason alone it is worth reading his words. But Rios is not preaching or soapboxing here. He is merely in the simplest of terms relating the courting, love, and family building between two lovely people - and that is enough to pull our attention away from differences to similarities. In 'Explaining a Husband' Rios writes: 'We're like that, I think, he and I, that husband of mine. We're like that now, even if we didn't start that way. We used to love each other. But now it's something else, something more. We know each other's life. And when we talk, We are each other's story.' Rios is not profound to the first glance reader, nor does he purport to be. Yet it is in his simplicity of thought and communication that the profundity of his thoughts emerges. His gift is in exploring the familiar and therein finding the magic that glows form all of our lives. Grady Harp, December 06