Full Description
"There was no one in this country as ferocious, as brilliant, or as necessary as Pedro Pietri. In these days of growing inequality it is to his rebel vision I turn to for hope and for strength. A towering poet, absolutely peerless, explosively talented, a pioneer, and iconoclast, and activist, to whom the entire spoken word movement owes a debt beyond calculation."--Junot Diaz "One of the great American poets of the twentieth century, a leader of the Nuyorican poetry movement that ignited at Miguel Algarin's Nuyorican Poet's Cafe. Perhaps the most progressive and at the same time funniest poet of the period."--Amiri Baraka Pedro Pietri's often playfully absurd poems chronicle the joys and struggles of Nuyoricans--urban Puerto Ricans whose lives straddle the islands of Puerto Rico and Manhattan--and define the Latino experience in urban America. By turns angry, heartbreaking, and hopeful, his writings are imbued with a sense of pride and nationalism and were embraced by the generation of Latino poets that followed him.
Pedro Pietri: Selected Poetry gathers the most enduring and treasured work among his published books, Puerto Rican Obituary, Traffic Violations, and Out of Order, along with a generous selection of his previously unpublished works. Pedro Pietri (1944--2004) was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and raised in Manhattan. In the early '70s he was a featured poet at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Juan Flores (1943-2014) was a professor and director of Latino Studies at New York University, and author of many books on Puerto Rican and Latino culture. Pedro Lopez Adorno is a professor in the Department of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies of Hunter College since 1987, and a published poet.
Contents
1. Puerto Rican Obituary
Puerto Rican Obituary
The Broken English Dream
Beware of Signs
Suicide Note from a Cockroach in a Low Income Housing Project
Tata
2. Traffic Violations
January Hangover
March Hangover
May Hangover
October Hangover
December Hangover
Traffic Violations
Intermission from Monday
Intermission from Wednesday
Intermission from Thursday
1 A.M. Never Again
1st Untitled Poem
5th Untitled Poem
8th Untitled Poem
10th Untitled Poem
13th Untitled Poem
Conversation in a Darker Room
April 15th Unitil Further Notice
Manual Typewriter Revisited
In Praise of a Total Stranger
Traffic Misdirector
Driving Without a Car
No Parkingat Any Time
I Hate Trees
To Get Drunk You Have to Drink
3. Out of Order
telephone booth numero zero
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4. El Party Continues
Orchard Beach
The Party Continues
5. Love Poems to My Surrealist Gypsy
Her Simplicity is Her Mystery
Puerto Rican History Blues
Ode to Witch Liberty
6. Loose Poems
Letter from a Vietnam Vet
The Lady Thinks
Yes--I swear to the statue of my liberty...
After the 7th Drink
After the 9th Drink
After the 11th Drink
Confessions of a Transistor Radio
What Was the Dream About?
El Spanglish National Anthem
The Puerto Rican Embassy Manifesto
Ode to a Grasshopper
Nighttime Sunshine Mind Game
Free Grass for he Working Class
Lost in the Museum of Natural History
