Raising kids is a unique experience, and so is the evolving relationship their parents have with them. The parents’ generation and the next can seem so incredibly different; nonetheless, they reflect each other.
Asley L. Mármol, a Valrico resident and author of The Watchers, recently released a short book of poems about his own experiences as a father raising children, entitled The Reflection, or El Reflejo in Spanish. Published by Iliada Ediciones, the book is wholly written in Spanish alongside English translations by the author, ensuring his poems’ meanings and messages are kept true, intact, and powerful in both languages for all readers.
His poems are separated into two sections: first is ‘Ellos,’ ‘Them’ in English, and then ‘Nosotros,’ or ‘Us.’ In ‘Them,’ Mármol endeavors to see things through the children’s point of view, and in ‘Us,’ he is, of course, writing from his own view as a father. All the poems are centered around this ever-growing, sometimes tumultuous, but hopefully wonderful relationship between the two generations.
“It’s a book that touches on the philosophical relationship between two generations, basically. … In my own personal life, my daughters are growing, life is changing. That mindset that they bring about — which is, I believe, fantastic — and our mindset, they collide in a good way, a provocative way that enriches us all,” said Mármol. “That collision of sorts between two generations is because they are a reflection of us, in a way, but it’s a reflection that rebels.”
“At some point,” he continued, “we’ll all come together, as human beings, as father and children, as friends, … as political allies. The book has a hopeful message that we’ll all be one at the end. It’s almost like we are two sides of the mirror, but it’s still the same frame.”
Kids rebelling is no strange thing; however, Mármol views this not as a destructive act, but instead as them rebelling for self-construction. Yet, as they mature, they reunite with their past, needing that structure parents provide to rely on.
“It’s basically the experience of a father … of how the relationship evolves with the children, then they leave us, then they come back and then we continue in this enriching course all the way until the end of life itself,” Mármol said.
To purchase The Reflection, visit www.amazon.com/reflejo-reflection-spanish-asley-mármol/dp/b0c1dpr54d/. To learn more about the author or his works, visit www.asleylmarmol.com.
