Perkins is an associate professor of English at Prince George's Community College in Maryland. In the following essay she examines one of the dominant themes in Judith Ortiz Cofer's "The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica"—the relationship between art and experience.

In his poetical treatise "Ars Poetica," which translates into "the art of poetry," Roman poet Horace writes of the importance of "decorum" in poetry, by which he means the appropriate connection between the parts of the poem and its whole. His principle of decorum emphasizes a concern with the relation of a poem to the reader—how the writer shapes the work to produce a pleasing experience for the reader. Judith Ortiz Cofer's "The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica" also focuses on this relationship between reader and author. In the poem's description of the interaction between a Spanish deli owner and her customers, Ortiz Cofer establishes...