Gary Soto has published more than forty books for children, young adults and adults, including Baseball in April, Living Up the Street, A Summer Life, Buried Onions and The Afterlife. He has been awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts (twice). His New and Selected Poems was a 1995 finalist for both the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award. He lives in Berkeley, California.
Stars
At dusk the first stars appear.
Not one eager finger points toward them.
A little later the stars spread with the night
And an orange moon rises
To lead them, like a shepherd, toward dawn.
“Stars,” from The Elements of San Joaquin. Copyright © 2018 Gary Soto. Used with Permission from the Author and Chronicle Books, LLC., www.ChronicleBooks.com.