Pedro Pietri: Selected Poetry

by Pedro Pietri, Juan Flores (Editor), Pedro Lopez Adorno (Editor)

Overview

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books, Puerto Rican Obituary, Traffic Violations, and Out of Order, along with a generous selection of his previously unpublished works.

"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 Algarín's Nuyorican Poet's Cafe. Perhaps the most progressive and at the same time funniest poet of the period."—Amiri Baraka

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 López Adorno is a professor in the Department of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies of Hunter College since 1987, and a published poet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780872866560
Publisher:	City Lights Books
Publication date:	10/27/2015
Pages:	254
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Pedro Pietri: Nuyorican poet and playwright Pedro Pietri was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico in 1944, and raised in Manhattan. In the early 1970s, he co-founded the Nuyorican Poets Cafe with Miguel Pinera, Miguel Algarin, and others. He died of stomach cancer in 2004.

Juan Flores: Juan Flores is a Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and director of Latino Studies at New York University. He is the recipient of the Casa de las Americas Prize and the Smithsonian Institution Latino Legacy Award. His books include: From Bomba to Hip-Hop: Essays on Puerto Rican Identity published by Columbia University Press.

Pedro Lopez Adorno: Pedro Lopez Adorno, born, Puerto Rico, 1954. Author of 13 books. He has been a professor in the Department of Africana and Puetro Rican/Latino Studies of Hunter College since 1987.

Table of 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
telephone booth number 801
telephone booth number 905 1/2
telephone booth number 339 1/2
telephone booth number 678
telephone booth number 12345
telephone booth number 65476
telephone booth number 26421483
telephone booth number 8976
telephone booth number 48
telephone booth number 9879
telephone booth number 48
telephone booth number 9879
telephone booth number 67409
telephone booth number 1359
telephone booth number 35465
telephone booth number 83 1/2
telephone booth number 1533130
telephone booth number 143503001
telephone booth number 7783
telephone booth number 309
telephone booth number 500
telephone booth number 484
telephone booth number 579 1/2
telephone booth number 436
telephone booth number 23
telephone booth number 765290
telephone booth number 365807
telephone booth number 203 1/2
telephone booth number 276507
telephone booth number maybe 58
telephone booth number 658003
telephone booth number 766 1/2
telephone booth number 0854650
telephone booth number 568
telephone booth number 5401658 1/4
telephone booth number 659
telephone booth number 8986987
telephone booth number 654875
telephone booth number 0574 1/2
telephone booth number 92345
telephone booth number 797301
telephone booth number 158715
telephone booth number 0671
telephone booth number 75753
telephone booth number 1599 or 1959
telephone booth number ??????????
telephone booth number HIJ
telephone booth number 109 minus 19
telephone booth number 000001
telephone booth number 616
telephone book number 8986586
telephone booth number 957
telephone booth number 1

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

Editorial Reviews

07/20/2015
In this charming and powerful posthumous volume, Pietri (1944–2004), a co-founder of New York City’s legendary Nuyorican Poets Café, shows off the sharp, surreal sense of humor he employs in writing on the social and political issues affecting New York City’s Puerto Rican community. Pietri’s use of short lines, rhyme, and repetition give his poetry a song-like quality as he engages and critiques pop culture and politics, among other subjects. He demonstrates his poetic range in such poems as “Driving Without a Car,” a striking elegy for a friend in which he mixes Spanish and English, and the confessional and the surreal, in lines that capture the challenges faced by young Nuyoricans. In contrast, Pietri’s series of poems titled “Telephone Booth” reveals his gift for blue humor: “cemeteries to the right/ cemeteries to the left,” he writes, “its impossible to get a hardon / when you are in long island.” On rare occasions, some poems feel less complete in their execution, whether due to an underdeveloped persona or an overdone rhyme, but the majority offer abundant joy and imagination that may inspire the reader to pick up a pen: “the magic of/ writing poetry,” Pietri declares, “is not knowing/ how to do it/ right or wrong!” (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"In this charming and powerful posthumous volume, Pietri, a co-founder of New York City’s legendary Nuyorican Poets Café, shows off the sharp, surreal sense of humor he employs in writing on the social and political issues affecting New York City’s Puerto Rican community … abundant joy and imagination that may inspire the reader to pick up a pen: 'the magic of / writing poetry,' Pietri declares, 'is not knowing / how to do it / right or wrong!’"—Publishers Weekly

“Like ‘Howl,' [Pietri’s poetry] became a cornerstone of new consciousness for a group of outsiders ready to declare their independence from the mainstream—in this case, the group Pietri himself helped name as Nuyoricans … much of his best work remained unpublished or buried in small-press magazines. Editors Juan Flores and Pedro López Adorno have thankfully gathered a substantial amount of Pietri’s uncollected work in this book”—Gerald Nicosia, San Francisco Chronicle

“'They worked / They worked / They worked / and they died / They died broke / They died owing / They died never knowing / what the front entrance / of the first national city bank looks like.' Pedro Pietri wrote 'Puerto Rican Obituary' in 1969, after having served in Vietnam. There’s no mention of that war in the poem, but there’s a strong sense of futility, death, and disaffection that must have been informed by witnessing the violence of war and then coming home to unfulfilled dreams. “Obituary” is the first poem in City Lights’ new collection of the late poet’s work, much of which is otherwise only available in out-of-print or photocopied editions. I hadn’t heard of Pietri before reading this collection, which is a shame because he strikes me as the Ginsberg of the Vietnam era—combining politics, race, and the personal in performative poetry. His lines are propulsive and witty, especially in the playful 'Telephone Booth' series, which reads like a flirtatious midnight conversation: 'because I do not / want to make / future generations / lose sleep I / will do my very best / not to influence / anyone regardless / of what a nice ass / they seem to have.’"—Nicole Rudick, The Paris Review

"Pedro Pietri: Selected Poetry gathers the most important poems of the author’s classic books. … The result is 240 pages of brilliant writing that delivers one of the sharpest looks into the Nuyorican experience ever offered … [A] collection like this should be read and celebrated, because it ensures that his legacy as spoken word innovator and his status as of the most explosively talented and unique voices in 20th century poetry is recognized and exposed to new readers.”—PANK

"In this charming and powerful posthumous volume, Pietri, a co-founder of New York City’s legendary Nuyorican Poets Café, shows off the sharp, surreal sense of humor he employs in writing on the social and political issues affecting New York City’s Puerto Rican community … abundant joy and imagination that may inspire the reader to pick up a pen: 'the magic of / writing poetry,' Pietri declares, 'is not knowing / how to do it / right or wrong!’"—Publishers Weekly

“Like ‘Howl,' [Pietri’s poetry] became a cornerstone of new consciousness for a group of outsiders ready to declare their independence from the mainstream—in this case, the group Pietri himself helped name as Nuyoricans … much of his best work remained unpublished or buried in small-press magazines. Editors Juan Flores and Pedro López Adorno have thankfully gathered a substantial amount of Pietri’s uncollected work in this book”—Gerald Nicosia, San Francisco Chronicle

“'They worked / They worked / They worked / and they died / They died broke / They died owing / They died never knowing / what the front entrance / of the first national city bank looks like.' Pedro Pietri wrote 'Puerto Rican Obituary' in 1969, after having served in Vietnam. There’s no mention of that war in the poem, but there’s a strong sense of futility, death, and disaffection that must have been informed by witnessing the violence of war and then coming home to unfulfilled dreams. “Obituary” is the first poem in City Lights’ new collection of the late poet’s work, much of which is otherwise only available in out-of-print or photocopied editions. I hadn’t heard of Pietri before reading this collection, which is a shame because he strikes me as the Ginsberg of the Vietnam era—combining politics, race, and the personal in performative poetry. His lines are propulsive and witty, especially in the playful 'Telephone Booth' series, which reads like a flirtatious midnight conversation: 'because I do not / want to make / future generations / lose sleep I / will do my very best / not to influence / anyone regardless / of what a nice ass / they seem to have.’"—Nicole Rudick, The Paris Review

"Pedro Pietri: Selected Poetry gathers the most important poems of the author’s classic books. … The result is 240 pages of brilliant writing that delivers one of the sharpest looks into the Nuyorican experience ever offered … [A] collection like this should be read and celebrated, because it ensures that his legacy as spoken word innovator and his status as of the most explosively talented and unique voices in 20th century poetry is recognized and exposed to new readers.”—PANK

From the Publisher