Critical Commentary
Maria Melendez is a wildly original poet whose monster goddesses and monster energies
make you believe that poetry might indeed save the earth.
--Sandra Alcosser
Flexible Bones is bold, far-ranging in its content, and inspired by las musas. The voice
is of the woman is sure and strong, consistent in every poem...the strong presence and
guidance of the goddesses, Coatlicue and la Virgen de Guadalupe, is felt in every line,
in every commitment the poems make. Poems made of carne y hueso y un niervito en el
pequeso como dice la gente, flexible but strong, bone density strong. A blessing.
--Rudolfo Anaya
Intrepid—Maria Melendez’s art is as intrepid and her voice as upbeat as one can find in
today’s poetry. Her poems read like double exposures—politics and pastures, spirit world
and irreverence, erotic protest as well as ‘nutrient love.’ How Long She’ll Last in This
World is a world created from the open eyes and ears of a marvelously original poet.
--Sandra McPherson
I don’t know anyone writing like Maria Melendez, and keeping so many pearls in the air.
Her work is not just new, it’s weirdly instructive, subtly subversive and very bold.
--Gary Snyder
