The road trip is the prayer.

California Prayer conveys the beauty of a false paradise, one we acknowledge is imperfect, but a finer place than the one we accept. Though applied here in a secular frame, a prayer is always honest. Pursuing true love, deliverance from addiction and the crossroads of identity and place perch on the fingertips and tongue of the poems within. Like a road trip, a prayer is not conceived by a preacher or a church – it is something personal, and comforting…and, while harmless, is ultimately futile. But, same as a journey with a destination but no map, something is learned, something is answered with no conceivable source. The road trip is the prayer. The poems in Other Poems 2010-2016 represent various styles and experiments in both experiencing and studying the importance of family history, identity, abstract and surreal memory and the timelessness of travel. They wind through a pivotal period of the author’s life, attempting to reveal his authenticity as poet and human-being, and how they intersect.

Joe Montaño III has been a largely self-taught Poet & Outsider artist, cultivating perspective in Panama, Europe and the U.S. He’s been a frequent performer, feature and critic of the Phoenix poetry & art scene since 2009. In 2011, he co-founded Balboa Poet House, a poetry event production company & independent press. He co-produced 2 installments of RISE!, an intercultural showcase of poets, musicians & artists from under-represented backgrounds. In early 2016, he published Five O’Clock, his debut collection of poetry. California Prayer & Other Poems represent his second collection, with The Half-Breed Horse Thief, his third collection, forthcoming in late 2018.