Book

Floaters : poems

Espada, Martín 1957- (author.).

Summary: "From the winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize come masterfully crafted narratives of protest, grief, and love. In this collection, Martín Espada bears witness to confrontation with anti-immigrant bigotry as a tenant lawyer years ago, and now sings the praises of Central American adolescents playing soccer in an internment camp founded on that same bigotry. He knows that times of hate also call for poems of love--even in the voice of a Galápagos tortoise. Whether celebrating the visions of fallen dreamers and poets or condemning the devastation of Hurricane Maria and official negligence in his father's Puerto Rico, Espada invokes ferocious, incandescent spirits"--

Record details

ISBN: 9781324021810
ISBN: 1324021810
Physical Description: print
75 pages ; 21 cm
Publisher: New York, NY : W. W. Norton, 2022.

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:

I. Jumping Off The Mystic Tobin Bridge -- Jumping Off the Mystic Tobin Bridge -- Floaters -- Ode to the Soccer Ball Sailing Over a Barbed-Wire Fence -- Not for Him the Fiery Lake of the False Prophet -- Boxer Wears América 1st Shorts in Bout With Mexican, Finishes Second -- Mazen Sleeps With His Foot on the Floor -- I Now Pronounce You Dead -- II. Asking Questions Of The Moon -- The Story of How We Came to America -- Why I Wait for the Soggy Tarantula of Spinach -- The Stoplight at the Corner Where Somebody Had to Die -- Death Rides the Elevator in Brooklyn -- The Cannon on the Hood of My Father's Car -- Asking Questions of the Moon -- Standing on the Bridge at Dolceacqua -- III. Love Song Of The Kraken -- Aubade With Concussion -- I Would Steal a Car for You -- That We Will Sing -- Love Song of the Kraken -- Love Song of the Galápagos Tortoise -- Love is a Luminous Insect at the Window -- Insulting the Prince -- The Assassination of the Landlord's Purple Vintage 1976 Monte Carlo -- IV. Morir Soñando -- Remake of Me the Sickle for Thy Grain -- Be There When They Swarm Me -- The Bard Shakes the Snow From the Trees -- Flan -- Morir Soñando -- The Five Horses of Doctor Ramón Emeterio Betances -- Letter to My Father.

Awards Note:

Winner of the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize

National Book Award Winner for Poetry, 2021