LA ÑAPA

In Dominican Spanish la ñapa refers to "the little extra" added on at the end. Just when you thought you'd gotten all that you would get, along comes your ñapa, like a baker's dozen, with one more kiss, one more pastelito, one more mango at the mercado.

A New Beginning

I don't generally write poems to order, but I couldn't resist an invitation from Nancy Benac of Associated Press to join a group of writers who were being asked to write a poem for Obama's inauguration (click to read -- &, in some cases, hear! -- the poems). It took me back to my first year in the United States of America when my whole family watched Kennedy's inauguration on television. January 20, 1961: I was ten years old, and I recall being mesmerized by the whole ceremony, particularly when a cranky old man got up and recited a poem after complaining about the light being in his eyes. Years later, I learned that the poet was Robert Frost, and I read his poem, "The Gift Outright," in my anthology. I always had a "lover's quarrel" (Frost's phrase, describing his relationship as poet to the world) with this poem, but I never bothered to think through why. In writing my own poem, I found out why the claims in the Frost poem never rang true to me -- until now. Check out his poem, read or listen to the other inauguration poems, and here's mine below:

January 20, 2009