When the aurora 
ripples the night, 
it’s easy to get 

lost in the asemic 
writing of winter. 

You want a mirror 
to see if you survived 
without a wound, 

a window to know 
if dawn is breaking 

the assault of colors. 

—After En la aurora by Octavio Quintanilla *

* Author’s Note:

The phrases in italics, “want a mirror” and “a window,” are translations of phrases in En la aurora.

 

En la aurora (mixed media on gallery-wrapped canvas),
Frontexto 143-23; 72, Geometric F(r)actures series

En la aurora
quiero un espejo
una ventana

Copyrighted © 2023 by Octavio Quintanilla.
All rights reserved. Appears here with artist’s permission.

Octavio Quintanilla

is the author of the poetry collection If I Go Missing (Slough Press, 2014), founder and director of the literature and arts festival VersoFrontera, founder of Alabrava Press, and former Poet Laureate of San Antonio, Texas (2018-2020). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Texas and teaches Literature and Creative Writing at Our Lady of the Lake University in San Antonio.

His poetry, fiction, translations, and photography have appeared, or are forthcoming, in journals such as Alaska Quarterly Review; Existere: A Journal of Art & Literature; Green Mountains Review; Pilgrimage; RHINO; Salamander; Southwestern American Literature; The Texas Observer; and elsewhere.

Quintanilla’s Frontextos (visual poems) have been published in About Place Journal; Chachalaca Review; Chair Poetry Evenings; Gold Wake Live; the Langdon Review of the Arts in Texas; Newfound; Poetry Northwest; Red Wedge; Tapestry; The American Journal of Poetry; The Museum of Americana; The Windward Review; and Twisted Vine Literary Arts Journal.

His visual artworks have been exhibited in a number of spaces, including Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center/Black Box Theater (Austin), El Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos, Our Lady of the Lake University, Presa House Gallery, Aanna Reyes Gallery (San Antonio), Southwest School of Art, The Weslaco Museum, The Walkers’ Gallery (San Marcos), and UTRGV-Brownsville (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley).

Artist’s website: https://www.octavioquintanilla.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/writeroctavioquintanilla/

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ January Poetry Curator Octavio Quintanilla: Procrastination is Part of the Process of Creativity, In the Green Room: Zócala Public Square (6 January 2023)

⚡ Three Poems by Octavio Quintanilla (“Sonnet for Human Smugglers”; “Love Song With Exiles”; and “Matanza del Marrano”) in Poem of the Week (28 February 2023)

⚡ FRONTEXTOS: Text/Image/Resistance—Mixed Media by Octavio Quintanilla (Numbers 259, 290, 289, 243, 248, and 268), in The Museum of Americana (Issue 16, Fall 2018)

Gary S. Rosin

is a Contributing Editor of MacQueen’s Quinterly. His poetry and haiga have appeared, or are forthcoming, in various literary reviews and anthologies, including Chaos Dive Reunion (Mutabilis Press, 2023); contemporary haibun (Volume 17, Red Moon Press, 2022); Concho River Review, Sulphur River, Texas Poetry Calendar; The Ekphrastic Review; and Visions International.

Two of his ekphrastic poems appear in Silent Waters, photographs by George Digalakis (Athens, 2017). He is the author of two chapbooks, Standing Inside the Web (Bear House Publishing, 1990) and Fire and Shadows (Legal Studies Forum, 2008). His poems “Black Dogs” and “Viewing the Dead” were nominated for Pushcart Prizes.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ Out of the Haze, collaborative haiga with photograph by George Digalakis and poem by Gary S. Rosin in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 8, June 2021); nominated for, and selected for publication in, Contemporary Haibun 17 (Red Moon Press, 2022)

⚡ Featured Poet: Gary S. Rosin in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 7, March 2021)

⚡ Crossing Kansas in The Wild Word (7 February 2020); includes audio of Rosin reading his poem

⚡ Two Readings: “Apparition” and “Black Dogs” by Gary S. Rosin for Texas Poetry Calendar 2015 at the Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, Texas (20 September 2014).

See also Black Dogs here in MacQ (Issue 12, March 2022), which was nominated in October 2022 by MacQ for the 48th annual Pushcart Prize (2024 edition).