by Martin Espada
Review:
Sandra Cisneros says: “Martín Espada is the Pablo Neruda of North American authors.” Martín Espada was born in Brooklyn, NY and is a poet and professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he teaches creative writing and Latino poetry. His poetry is sometimes based on Puerto Rico, politics, history and literature. The Republic of Poetry is his eighth collection of poems, where he celebrates odes, elegies, collective memories, hidden history, miraculous happenings and redemptive justice. Espada introduces us to his 'republic' in three parts. The first is Chile, the second unites the poets, from various lands, whom Espada has admired and finally, there is the American 'republic'. I personally loved two poems in this collection: The Republic of Poetry (I think I will use this in my classroom this year.) and Rules for Captain Ahab's Provincetown Poetry Workshop. Both are funny and clever poems that will stick with you for days. Overall, this is the first full collection of Espada's that I have read and I will now look for more of his work in the future. If you are interested in hearing him read, he will be at the 12th biennial Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival, which will run from Thursday, September 25 through Sunday, September 28, 2008.
