Floaters

Winner of the 2021 National Book Award for Poetry From the winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize come masterfully crafted narratives of protest, grief and love. Martín Espada is a poet who "stirs in us an undeniable social consciousness," says Richard Blanco. Floaters offers exuberant odes and defiant elegies, songs of protest and songs of love from one of the essential voices in American poetry. Floaters takes its title from a term used by certain Border Patrol agents to describe migrants who drown trying to cross over. The title poem responds to the viral photograph of Óscar and Valeria, a Salvadoran father and daughter who drowned in the Río Grande, and allegations posted in the "I’m 10-15" Border Patrol Facebook group that the photo was faked. Espada bears eloquent witness to confrontations with anti-immigrant bigotry as a tenant lawyer years ago, and now sings the praises of Central American adolescents kicking soccer balls over a barbed wire fence in an internment camp founded on that same bigotry. He also knows that times of hate call for poems of love—even in the voice of a cantankerous Galápagos tortoise. The collection ranges from historical epic to achingly personal lyrics about growing up, the baseball that drops from the sky and smacks Espada in the eye as he contemplates a girl’s gently racist question. Whether celebrating the visionaries—the fallen dreamers, rebels and poets—or condemning the outrageous governmental neglect of his father’s Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricane María, Espada invokes ferocious, incandescent spirits.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLSER • “This is vintage Wambaugh, a rollicking and ribald tale, laced with black humor.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune Harbor cops Fortney and Leeds have a good time patrolling San Diego’s Mission Bay, scopingout body-sculpted beauties on pleasure craft, rescuing boating bozos who’ve run aground, and haulingin the occasional floater. But now their days are anything but typical, for theAmerica’s Cup regattas have come to town and San Diego swarms with sailors, schemers, spies, and saboteurs,and the cuppies who want to love them. It’s a randy cuppie named Blaze who tweaks their cop instincts thatsomething’s not quite right on the waterfront—and it’sBlaze who sets off a bizarre criminal trail that wouldbe hilarious if it didn’t wind up just as nasty asit gets, with a pair of murders right on the eve of thebiggest sailing race of all. Praise for Floaters “There’s only one Joe Wambaugh. He’s a really important American writer.”—Jonathan Kellerman “[Wambaugh] dazzles with his intimate knowledge of police life, black humor, raunchy dialogue, and a cast of nineties choirboys. . . . A cop’s expertise and the literary power of a master storyteller.”—Digby Diehl, Playboy “The author’s trademark sardonic writing is in full force here.”—Publishers Weekly

We all have them, most of us see them, but only a few people pay attention to them: the scattered, transparent and mobile dots and strands in our field of vision. In ophthalmology, they are called "eye floaters" and explained as vitreous opacities. But is this explanation correct? In this book, the author Floco Tausin follows the seers experience that eye floaters are not a cloudiness of the vitreous humour, but a shining structure and an expression of our state of consciousness. In this collection of previously published and revised texts, the author reconciles the physiological, the ophthalmological and the seers understanding of floaters. Eye floaters are discussed as a phenomenon between science and religion, as a challenge to ophthalmology, as an expression of our visual nervous system, and as a starting point to an alternative spiritual treatment of migraine headache.

We all have them, most of us see them, but only a few people pay attention to them: the scattered, transparent and mobile dots and strands in our field of vision. In ophthalmology, they are called "eye floaters" and explained as vitreous opacities. But is this explanation correct? In this book, the author Floco Tausin follows the seers experience that eye floaters are not a cloudiness of the vitreous humour, but a shining structure and an expression of our state of consciousness. In this collection of previously published and revised texts, the author explores the shining structure of consciousness in the arts and religion of indigenous cultures. Topics include the geometric art in Stone Age Europe, the shamanic beliefs and art of traditional societies in Central Asia and South America, as well as the rock art, crafts, architecture and myths of Native Americans of the USA and Canada.

We all have them, most of us see them, but only a few people pay attention to them: the scattered, transparent and mobile dots and strands in our field of vision. In ophthalmology, they are called "eye floaters" and explained as vitreous opacities. But is this explanation correct? In this book, the author Floco Tausin follows the seers' experience that eye floaters are not a cloudiness of the vitreous humour, but a shining structure and an expression of our state of consciousness. In this collection of previously published and revised texts, the author explores spiritual dimensions of eye floaters. The focus is on seer Nestor's view that floaters are first appearances of the shining structure of consciousness. As such, they can be used for open eye meditation and be intensified by ecstasy. Furthermore, floaters are discussed as a source of inspiration for Carlos Castaneda's spiritual world and of reports of near-death experiences.

We all have them, most of us see them, but only a few people pay attention to them: the scattered, transparent and mobile dots and strands in our field of vision. In ophthalmology, they are called "eye floaters" and explained as vitreous opacities. But is this explanation correct? In this book, the author Floco Tausin follows the seers experience that eye floaters are not a cloudiness of the vitreous humour, but a shining structure and an expression of our state of consciousness. In this collection of previously published and revised texts, the author explores the shining structure of consciousness in ancient civilizations. Topics include works of art, myths and worldviews of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Ancient China and Pre-Columbian Central America.

The U.S. Navy conscripted Andrew Green before he ever got to join his family as they set out to become Raft People in order to survive the Big Flood. After the Big Flood, his old city of Houston lies under the new Sea of Mexico, but at least Andrew knows that his siblings, Liz and Mark, have been safely settled in Colorado. But Ensign Andrew Green is still far from Texas or Colorado as he patrols the Sea of Mexico over what used to be most of Florida. During this time, he works long hours to do his duty and retreats inside his head to relieve his loneliness and imagine a world that should have been. Then his group gets called to deliver supplies to the floating city of New Miami. Andrew meets a lovely young “floater” woman named Clara, but she's got secrets that can threaten Andrew's career and even his life. Andrew, recruited and promoted too young, feels like a kid in a sailor suit as the crew tries to beat the storm and rescue anybody they can. Still, he can't help thinking of Clara. But is this a good time to fall in love with a woman who may have almost ruined his career and even risked his life?

As a "floating" writer on a national magazine, Fred Becker's greatest diversion is keeping score on all office romances, until a hot tip about the president's wife gives his career a new boost.