Vivas to Those Who Have Failed: Poems

Fiction & Literature, Poetry, American
Cover of the book Vivas to Those Who Have Failed: Poems by Martín Espada, W. W. Norton & Company
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Martín Espada ISBN: 9780393249040
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Publication: January 4, 2016
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company Language: English
Author: Martín Espada
ISBN: 9780393249040
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publication: January 4, 2016
Imprint: W. W. Norton & Company
Language: English

Award-winning poet Martín Espada gives voice to the spirit of endurance in the face of loss.

In this powerful new collection of poems, Martín Espada articulates the transcendent vision of another, possible world. He invokes the words of Whitman in “Vivas to Those Who Have Failed,” a cycle of sonnets about the Paterson Silk Strike and the immigrant laborers who envisioned an eight-hour workday. At the heart of this volume is a series of ten poems about the death of the poet’s father. “El Moriviví” uses the metaphor of a plant that grows in Puerto Rico to celebrate the many lives of Frank Espada, community organizer, civil rights activist, and documentary photographer, from a jailhouse in Mississippi to the streets of Brooklyn. The son lyrically imagines his father’s return to a bay in Puerto Rico: “May the water glow blue as a hyacinth in your hands.” Other poems confront collective grief in the wake of the killings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School and police violence against people of color: “Heal the Cracks in the Bell of the World” urges us to “melt the bullets into bells.” Yet the poet also revels in the absurd, recalling his dubious career as a Shakespearean “actor,” finding madness and tenderness in the crowd at Fenway Park. In exquisitely wrought images, Espada’s poems show us the faces of Whitman’s “numberless unknown heroes.”

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Award-winning poet Martín Espada gives voice to the spirit of endurance in the face of loss.

In this powerful new collection of poems, Martín Espada articulates the transcendent vision of another, possible world. He invokes the words of Whitman in “Vivas to Those Who Have Failed,” a cycle of sonnets about the Paterson Silk Strike and the immigrant laborers who envisioned an eight-hour workday. At the heart of this volume is a series of ten poems about the death of the poet’s father. “El Moriviví” uses the metaphor of a plant that grows in Puerto Rico to celebrate the many lives of Frank Espada, community organizer, civil rights activist, and documentary photographer, from a jailhouse in Mississippi to the streets of Brooklyn. The son lyrically imagines his father’s return to a bay in Puerto Rico: “May the water glow blue as a hyacinth in your hands.” Other poems confront collective grief in the wake of the killings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School and police violence against people of color: “Heal the Cracks in the Bell of the World” urges us to “melt the bullets into bells.” Yet the poet also revels in the absurd, recalling his dubious career as a Shakespearean “actor,” finding madness and tenderness in the crowd at Fenway Park. In exquisitely wrought images, Espada’s poems show us the faces of Whitman’s “numberless unknown heroes.”

More books from W. W. Norton & Company

Cover of the book Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Martín Espada
Cover of the book Inheriting the War: Poetry and Prose by Descendants of Vietnam Veterans and Refugees by Martín Espada
Cover of the book What Einstein Kept Under His Hat: Secrets of Science in the Kitchen by Martín Espada
Cover of the book Becoming a Published Therapist: A Step-by-Step Guide to Writing Your Book by Martín Espada
Cover of the book Professional Practice: A Guide to Turning Designs into Buildings by Martín Espada
Cover of the book The Collected Papers of Otto Fenichel by Martín Espada
Cover of the book The Decision Book: 50 Models for Strategic Thinking by Martín Espada
Cover of the book Identity: Youth and Crisis by Martín Espada
Cover of the book Invisible Hands: The Businessmen's Crusade Against the New Deal by Martín Espada
Cover of the book Khrushchev: The Man and His Era by Martín Espada
Cover of the book Play and Creativity in Psychotherapy (Norton Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology) by Martín Espada
Cover of the book Mind, Brain, and Education Science: A Comprehensive Guide to the New Brain-Based Teaching by Martín Espada
Cover of the book The Catalans: A Novel by Martín Espada
Cover of the book A Good Indian Wife: A Novel by Martín Espada
Cover of the book Dark Side of the Moon: Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich, and the Space Race by Martín Espada
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy