To the Boy Who Was Night: Poems: Selected and New

by Rigoberto González

The capstone of a quarter-century career in poetry, To the Boy Who Was Night collects the poetry published by Rigoberto González since 1999, including selections from five previous books as well as new work. Mirroring González’s personal trajectory, the arc of this work articulates the course of a these poems recall leaving a beloved homeland, confront masculinity and sexuality in new adulthood, imagine the earth devoid of human inhabitants, descend into the realm of ghosts, and return to arrive at Dispatches from the Broken World . This latest section ventures into foreign terrain — an autobiographical confrontation with isolation and the aging body. His lyrical exploration, like the weather reports scrawled on ancient temple walls, will preserve this age-old “likely a poem, surely an epitaph.” To the Boy Who Was Night bears the fruit of 25 years of poetry, González’s boldest and most comprehensive volume yet.

Genres: Poetry

278 pages, Paperback

First published March 15, 2023

Reviews

[Vanesa Pacheco · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ González does what I love: blending English and Spanish in the way a bilingual latine would do. It comes with una mezcla of cultures, folklore, and queerness. I appreciate his honesty. I admired his sensual visuals. Que rico leer poesías que hablan al corazón.

[Mariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poetry collection that  evokes the painful emotions associated with grief, racism, and homophobia. The essential queer guide of emotions to the peril the community is subjected to due social stigma. The tender voice displayed throughout the various poems is loud and honest. This is a collection that truly captures the meaning of poetry and how poetry forms are intended to share emotions with each other.

               A collection for the community that will rattle your bones and make you think about impact. The way relationships with others are evoked during grief and questions about death. Death is an absolute so why are we not living freely as ourselves? This is the question the collection answers again and again. The poems range in different forms from prose to line breaks to rhyming couplets.  Poems in Spanish with translation and without translation. That’s the power of this collection.

               The macabre collection deals with largely on death and grief. The preparation for death and how we choose our relationship with our fates is based on our relationship with comfort. The comfort to be ourselves is not a privilege extended to everyone – so how do we make the most of those experiences? Really take your time through this collection to feel and truly smell the way the experiences shape our psyche.

[Starving for Meaning · Rating 5 out of 5]

You ever wanted to find something man made that would gut punch you with how raw it is? This is that, this is the gut punch and the gut and the fist and my shattered mental state after reading all of it.

[Vincent Antonio Rendoni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Portrait of the artist as a young and middle-aged man. Loved.