Papi Pichón

by Dimitri Reyes

Dimitri Reyes' first collection, Papi Pichón, is an Ars Poetica response to the Caribbean paradox where using words as categorically simple as "Puerto Rican" in an attempt to identify the complex amalgamations of African, Indigenous, Spanish, and beyond can only be described fully through myth. Where the cultural concepts that transcend history and lineage themselves become mythology. The Papi Pichón (Father Pigeon) figure works as an omnipresent voice throughout the collection, taking space during events such as the formation of hurricanes, the 1974 Puerto Rican riots in Newark, NJ, and when climate change has rid the world of us. Through verse lush with the sounds of drums, chants, and pop culture references, Reyes' work also connects these worldly ideas with the more personal spaces that see the poems dealing with the fear of not belonging as well as the reconciling of the death of loved ones, and connecting to ourselves on a spiritual level. Like the dove from where the title gets its name, Papi Pichón flies across oceans and recycles itself through tradition, blood, nature, and time- always manifesting itself in new creationism. Whether pigeon, child, abolitionist, artist, ghost, or thought, in one word, Papi Pichón is spirit. The guide that brings us all closer together.

Genres: Poetry

100 pages, Paperback

Published July 15, 2023

Reviews

[Ebony (EKG)]

Told from the perspective of Papi Pichón— an omnipresent, omniscient mythological pigeon—these poems explore all aspects of the Boricua experience. From Bomba & recipes that call for sofrito, to the Tainos & Hurricane Maria—Papi Pichon is a celebration of a culture & people who have survived and evolved against colonization and erasure.

Stylistically, the form of this collection was so interesting & it has inspired me to try out new ways of writing my own poems.

themes: identity, heritage, colonization, erasure, perseverance, survival

[F.M Papaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outside of Patricia Smith’s Blood Dazzler, which is a work of persona poetry that personifies Hurricane Katrina, I have not encountered such dynamic poetry in this genre. Reyes works through the story of an oral tradition about a pigeon who flies from Puerto Rico to NY. His inventiveness in filling an entire book with compelling iterations of this character—who narrates, entertains, rebukes, transmutes, and much more—is both didactic and inspiring for my own work within persona poetry.