This is Pedro Ray's second inspirational rhyming poetry, literary book masterpiece! The second in a series volume collection.

“Mesmerizing, magical, deeply moving.” —Elif Shafak Expanding on the popular podcast of the same name from On Being Studios, Poetry Unbound offers immersive reflections on fifty powerful poems. In the tumult of our contemporary moment, poetry has emerged as an inviting, consoling outlet with a unique power to move and connect us, to inspire fury, tears, joy, laughter, and surprise. This generous anthology pairs fifty illuminating poems with poet and podcast host Pádraig Ó Tuama’s appealing, unhurried reflections. With keen insight and warm personal anecdotes, Ó Tuama considers each poem’s artistry and explores how its meaning can reach into our own lives. Focusing mainly on poets writing today, Ó Tuama engages with a diverse array of voices that includes Ada Limón, Ilya Kaminsky, Margaret Atwood, Ocean Vuong, Layli Long Soldier, and Reginald Dwayne Betts. Natasha Trethewey meditates on miscegenation and Mississippi; Raymond Antrobus makes poetry out of the questions shot at him by an immigration officer; Martín Espada mourns his father; Marie Howe remembers and blesses her mother’s body; Aimee Nezhukumatathil offers comfort to her child-self. Through these wide-ranging poems, Ó Tuama guides us on an inspiring journey to reckon with self-acceptance, history, independence, parenthood, identity, joy, and resilience. For anyone who has wanted to try their hand at a conversation with poetry but doesn’t know where to start, Poetry Unbound presents a window through which to celebrate the art of being alive.

This book is a detailed oral history of early San Pedro punk, from 1977 to 1985, told through countless interviews with artists, locals and fans, all of whom lived there or lived through it. Topics include iconic gigs by bands the Minutemen, Black Flag, the Descendents, and lesser-known but highly original and fascinating artists; personal interviews with the major players, friends and families; and descriptions of the nightlife haunts and hangouts, all told through never-before-published thoughts, memories, and opinions from that seminal time. The interviews are woven together in a firsthand narrative of this innovative music and arts scene, often dismissed as too remote, too artsy, and too experimental for the prevailing hardcore and rock scenes of the time. Years later, this book provides fascinating details of the iconic scene now sought after by music and history fans and those interested in the hidden gems of Los Angeles culture of the '70s and '80s.