Puerto Rican poetry: a selection from aboriginal to contemporary times

The areyto / Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes

Elegy the sixth / Juan de Castellanos

Puerto Rica / Fray Damian Lopez de Haro

Riposte / Anonymous

Sonnet upon her death to sor Juana Ines de la Cruz / Francisco de Ayerre Santa Maria

To the blessed and beautiful island of San Juan de Puerto Rico: a canto / Juan Rodriguez Calderon

The jibaro's verses / Miguel Cabrera

The nymph of Puerto Rico to justice / Maria Bibiana Benitez

To my lamp / Alejandra Benitez

The submarine cable in Puerto Rico / Alejandra Benitez

Insomnia / Santiago Vidarte

The Puerto Rican / Manuel A. Alonso

A Jibaro wedding / Manuel A. Alonso

To a Palacio, a Caribe: reply to Manuel del Palacio / Jose Gualberto Padilla

Paraphrasis of the sonnet "Puerto Rico" by Manuel del Palacio / Jose Gualberto Padilla

Anthem / Lola Rodrigues de Tio

Couplets / Lola Rodrigues de Tio

To my absent husband / Lola Rodrigues de Tio

Self-portrait / Lola Rodrigues de Tio

Mist / Lola Rodrigues de Tio

Puerto Rico / Jose Gautier Benitez

To my friends / Jose Gautier Benitez

Hope / Francisco Gonzalo

The rag / Francisco Gonzalo

Nulla est redemptio / Luis Munoz Rivera

XXXIV / Luis Munoz Rivera

To any compatriot / Luis Munoz Rivera

To her / Luis Munoz Rivera

The white houries / Jose de Jesus Dominguez

Echoes of an era / Jose de Jesus Dominguez

The bath / Trinidad Padilla de Sanz

Tropical landscape / Trinidad Padilla de Sanz

To Spain / Jose de Diego

Hallelujahs / Jose de Diego

The last string / Jose de Diego

Creole Venus / Virgilio Davila

Nostalgia / Virgilio Davila

The town / Virgilio Davila

Song of the Antilles / Luis Llorens Torres

Distant song / Luis Llorens Torres

Creole life / Luis Llorens Torres

Collores / Luis Llorens Torres

New York nocturnes / Clara Lair

Dark adonis / Clara Lair

Frivolity / Clara Lair

Credo / Clara Lair

San Juan / Evaristo Ribera Chevremont

The symphony of the hammers / Evaristo Ribera Chevremont

Plentitude / Evaristo Ribera Chevremont

My butterfly of an antillean isle / Evaristo Ribera Chevremont

Festival song to be wept / Luis Pales Matos

Prelude in Puerto Rico / Luis Pales Matos

Mulatta Antilles / Luis Pales Matos

The call / Luis Pales Matos

Semela and the satyr / Jose Isaac de Diego Padro

Epistle to the pelican in the park / Jose Isaac de Diego

En yo granma, where she at? / Fernando Fortunato Vizcarrondo

Solitude / Clemente Soto Velez

The achieved emotion / Clemente Soto Velez

#18 / Clemente Soto Velez

Jail cell / Juan Antonio Corretjer

In life it's always a going / Clemente Soto Velez

The convoy / Juan Antonio Corretjer

Pueerto Rican on the moon / Juan Antonio Corretjer

Motifs of Mulatta envy / Carmen Maria Colon Pellot

Song to the Mullato race (making of the verse) / Carmen Maria Colon Pellot

The land is a Mullatta / Carmen Maria Colon Pellot

To Julia de Burgos / Julia de Burgos

My, oh my, oh my of the nappy-haired Negress / Julia de Burgos

Poem for my death / Julia de Burgos

Antisonnet to the Noble Sea / Francisco Matos Paoli

Biographical summary / Francisco Matos Paoli

The Puerto Ricans / Francisco Matos Paoli

A few stars in my room / Violeta Lopez Suria

Litany II with embedded sonnet / Violeta Lopez Suria

Lovingly / Violeta Lopez Suria.

Landscape / Hugo Margenat

Active poetics / Hugo Margenat

God is good / Hugo Margenat

Links / Hugo Margenat

Words words / Iris M. Zavala

XXI / Iris M. Zavala

The pelagic glance / Iris M. Zavala

Opprobrium / Rosario Ferre

The shadow of guilt / Rosario Ferre

The language duel / Rosario Ferre

The bone of conquerors / Rosario Ferre

A sentimental education / Olga Nolla

Ariadne, postmodern, constructs a labyrinth / Olga Nolla

I regret having to contradict my elders / Olga Nolla

A poet doesn't know for certain / Olga Nolla

Supervit / Marcos Rodriguez Frese

Hymn / Marcos Rodriguez Frese

Vital poetics / Marcos Rodriguez Frese

Celebrating vallejo / Andres Castro Rios

The crime was in Grenada / Andres Castro Rios

The night and poetry have something to say / Andres Castro Rios

Synthesis / Hjalmar Flax

The lord's prayer / Hjalmar Flax

Determinations / Hjalmar Flax

Poetic injustice / Hjalmar Flax

In articulo mortis / Hjalmar Flax

Love always begins / Vincente Rodriguez Nietzsche

Love spumes us up in its fluid cascade / Vincente Rodriguez Nietzsche

Let not the poets say / Jorge Maria Ruscalleda Bercedoniz

Homicide / Jorge Maria Ruscalleda Bercedoniz

My mother is a seamstress / Jorge Maria Ruscalleda Bercedoniz

Satiric Decima / Juan de Matta Garcia

Much as she would not Penelope abides.../ Manuel Ramos Otero

I left behind the streets of my country / Manuel Ramos Otero

Vigil / Manuel Ramos Otero

Nobility of blood / Manuel Ramos Otero

One more / Jose Luis Vega

The body of language / Jose Luis Vega

Passion solo II / Jose Luis Vega

Passion solo IV / Jose Luis Vega

Convalescence / Luz Ivonne Ochart

New York, New York / Luz Ivonne Ochart

Walking down the streets listening to boleros, boleros and boleros / Luz Ivonne Ochart

The sixth glass / Vanessa Droz

To encircle the fire / Vanessa Droz

Love's body / Vanessa Droz

Study for an island love / Pedro Lopez Adorno

Variation on a recipe / Pedro Lopez Adorno

Capricho with salsa rhythm / Pedro Lopez Adorno

Cliche prosem / Lilliana Ramos Collado

Condemned women / Lilliana Ramos Collado

Euclidiana / Lilliana Ramos Collado

Consequences of thermodynamics / Lilliana Ramos Collado.

Getting out alive / Rosario Morales

Africa / Rosario Morales

My revolution / Rosario Morales

Jet neorriqueno/Neo-Rican jetliner / Jaime Carrero

Conversacion II / Jaime Carrero

Lamento O / Jaime Carrero

Sonnet for 1950 / Jack Agueros

Sonnet for the #6 / Jack Agueros

Psalm for your image / Jack Agueros

Psalm for the next millennium / Jack Agueros

Mongo affair / Miguel Algarin

High wine in Beehive, Guyana / Miguel Algarin

El Jibarito moderno/ Miguel Algarin

Nuyorican angel of records / Miguel Algarin

You must be in the potatoes, because you look so good / Lydia Cortes

Bouillabaisse / Lydia Cortes

Embouchements / Lydia Cortes

Puerto Rican obituary / Pedro Pietri

Telephone booth / Pedro Pietri

Traffic misdirector / Pedro Pietri

Nighttime sunshine mind game / Pedro Pietri

no hole in a punctured poem / Louis Reyes Rivera

the adverb / Louis Reyes Rivera

january pigeons / Louis Reyes Rivera

like Toussaint, so Marti / Louis Reyes Rivera

A lower east side poem / Miguel Pinero

This is not the place where I was born / Miguel Pinero

The menudo of a cuchifrito love affair / Miguel Pinero

Che's picture in Ramparts / Julio Marzan

The pure preposition / Julio Marzan

The translator at the reception for Latin American writers / Julio Marzan

Arresting beauty / Julio Marzan

Tom , Dick, and Sally / Julio Marzan

San Juan bautista port

Alba Ambert

Canticles of desire / Alba Ambert

I want to remember / Alba Ambert

Jibaro, my pretty nigger / Felipe Luciano

The library / Felipe Luciano

Maya / Felipe Luciano

Autobiography of a Nuyorican / Sandra Maria Esteves

Who is going to tell me? / Sandra Maria Esteves

Black notes and "You do something to me" / Sandra Maria Esteves

Energy / Victor Hernandez Cruz

You gotta have your tips on fire / Victor Hernandez Cruz

Three songs from the 50s / Victor Hernandez Cruz

Atmospheric phenomenon: the art of hurricanes / Victor Hernandez Cruz

palm tree in spanglish figurines / Tato Laviera

tito madera smith / Tato Laviera

AmeRican / Tato Laviera

The idea of islands / Judith Ortiz Cofer

The Latin deli: an ars poetica / Judith Ortiz Cofer

We are all carriers / Judith Ortiz Cofer

Latin women pray / Judith Ortiz Cofer

Child of the Americas / Aurora Levins Morales

Class poem / Aurora Levins Morales

Heart's desire / Aurora Levins Morales

Black train through the ancient empire of Chicago / Martin Espada

Trumpets from the islands of their Eviction / Martin Espada

Niggerlips / Martin Espada

The river will not testify / Martin Espada

Immigrant's voices / Naomi Ayala

Abuelo's garden / Naomi Ayala

In a world of few merengues / Naomi Ayala.