Alberto Rios

Alberto Rios (1952-  ) was born in Nogales, Arizona. Since 1994 he has been Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University in Tempe, where he has taught since 1982. In 2013, Ríos was named the inaugural state poet laureate of Arizona. He holds numerous awards, including six Pushcart Prizes in both poetry and fiction, the Arizona Governor's Arts Award and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

1.

The river through its centuries has made a line on this place,

A child's line, wanting to be straight but distracted at every move,

A little left, a little fast, around a big rock, sliding straight away

Through sand, this crawling, leaden line echoing

The line made by the tops of the mountains in silhouette against the sky.

The railroad track makes another line, a double line-

The highway, too, and the telephone poles strung with wire.

All these lines work in sure if uneasy concert.

Written on the arid air of this place, which has made everything

Dry and white,off-white, some darks but on their way to white,

All this landscape a great and delicate paper.

— Alberto Rios from ‘The Sheet Music of Place’