antes que isla es volcán / before island is volcano: poemas / poems

by Roque Raquel Salas Rivera

From the National Book Award-nominated, Lambda Award-winning poet: a powerful, inventive new collection that looks to the future of Puerto Rico with love, rage, beauty, and hope.

Raquel Salas Rivera's star has risen swiftly in the poetry world, and this, his 6th book, promises to cement his status as one of the most important poets working today. In sharp, crystalline verses, written in both Spanish and English versions, antes que isla es volcán daringly imagines a decolonial Puerto Rico.

Salas Rivera unfurls series after series of poems that build in intensity: one that casts Puerto Rico as the island of Caliban in Shakespeare's The Tempest, another that imagines a multiverse of possibilities for Puerto Rico's fate, a 3rd in which the poet demands his right to a future and its immediate distribution. The verses are rigorous and sophisticated, engaging with literary and political theory, yet are also hard-hitting, charismatic, and quotable ("won't you be sorry? / won't you wish you had a boss? / won't you get restless / with all that freedom?").

These poems tap unflinchingly into the explosive energy of the island, transforming it into protest, into spirit, into art.

Genres: Poetry, Queer

160 pages, Paperback

Published April 5, 2022

Reviews

[laurel! · Rating 5 out of 5]

roque raquel salas rivera the things you write (pride month book #3!)

[Ivana]

lo recomiendo en español--no me gustaron las traducciones, especialmente ese título...

[pau · Rating 5 out of 5]

la forma tan cruda en la que refleja esa realidad puertorriqueña sobre la independencia y la corrupción que se vive en el país no es nada difícil de conectar con la situación actual de canarias por lo que este libro (aunque no trate ese turismo y se centre más en esa ineficacia de las instituciones) refleja ese hartazgo, hastío, cansancio y voz revolucionaria que piensa en levantarse, que inicia a comenzar ese cambio. un encanto brutal este poemario.

[Freya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous poetry that I could write endlessly about. Very interesting when read alongside Puerto Rican history, and The Tempest (very interesting how it was reframed in this context). Best part was definitely the construction of the collection as a whole - different experience reading it as a collective rather than individual poems, but both are equally brilliant.

[Jaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me gusta que está tan claramente enraizado a un territorio, tan finamente enhebrado en el corazón del volcán, de la rabia que germina de la ocupación, de la relación de Puerto Rico-Estados Unidos. Hace evidente cómo trasmina en los sueños, los duelos y la escritura.

[Marilú · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es una experiencia maravillosa poder leer tanto la desesperación, la tristeza, el dolor, pero sobre todo la esperanza, porque ese sería el núcleo principal del libro: poder no solo pensar en el futuro, sino en un futuro mejor, sin importar lo doloroso que pueda ser el pasado.

[CinnamonTea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful, inspired me to write more often and embrace poetry.

[Alana Seymour · Rating 4 out of 5]

Favorites: eleven truths and a lie, The Independence (of Puerto Rico), The Arc.

[Maya · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the message but edgy modern poetry isn't really my vibe

[Evie Poulter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Appreciate the theme of decolonisation and Tempest references. Was beautiful in parts but just couldn't move past the fact that it felt like slam poetry in Ginny and Georgia. sorry

[amelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

very beautiful just not my kind of poetry

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved these poems. It's rare that I'll find poetry that really makes me feel things but these just knew how to get to me. They were so beautiful.

9/10