Dark and perfect angels

de Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Saenz' poetry has always been centered in the geography and cultures of the desert Southwest. Dark and Perfect Angels moves deeper into that territory, exploring the difficult braiding of Mexican, Indian and European traditions of his heritage, the struggles and complications of family life, the visceral nature of religious faith in Mexico "where any saint worth praying to must be adorned with blood as well as gold," a priest's anointing of a young man dying from gunshot, the shedding of the priest's robes and the secular quest for faith.