SOURCE: Slovic, Scott. Review of Black Mesa Poems, by Jimmy Santiago Baca. Western American Literature 26, no. 2 (summer 1991): 180-81.

In the following review, Slovic praises the “vibrant observation,” resonating imagery, and universalizing spirit of Baca's Black Mesa Poems.

Black Mesa Poems is an impressive achievement, at once universal and thoroughly regional, even private. To read Jimmy Santiago Baca's poetry is to tramp across the uneven terrain of human experience, sometimes lulled by the everydayness of work or relationships, and then dazzled by a flood of emotion or vibrant observation.

Baca has a compelling fondness for contrasts. The moods and imagery of entire poems resonate against each other, like a medley of voices echoing in a canyon. One of my favorite pieces in this book is the brief, melancholy sketch called “Hitchhiker.” Other poems, however, consider life with a mixture of humor and tenderness. “Since You've Come,” which was selected...