Recinos' love for poetry began on the tormented streets of the South Bronx and the experience of being abandoned by Latino parents at age twelve to live on them. On the streets, Recinos discovered a world of extreme poverty and drugs, until four years later he was taken into the family of a White Presbyterian minister and guided back into school. In graduate school in New York City, Recinos befriended the Nuyorican poets the late Miguel Pinero and Pedro Pietri, who encouraged him to write and read poetry at the Nuyorican poets cafe. After Dark is poetry that speaks distinctively of the cultural and worldly experience of Black and Brown humanity driven by the resilience and challenging worlds that impose human limitations. Recinos uses the poetic instrument to enable readers to hear the history and share the experiences of people who see hope in "the brutal atmosphere / of this land of purple mountain majesties / lashed to fierce grief." Recinos is a poet who writes between the lines and with a Spanglish vision for life.