Customer Reviews

Rooftop Piper

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

David Hernandez has a marvelous and innovative way of writing that evokes his native island of Puerto Rico. Colorful and image-laden, his poetry runs the gamut from the hilarious to the heart-rending, and if you want to get the most out of it, read it aloud; it is rythmically beautiful. I love the man and his books (another is entitled, _Elvis is Dead, But at Least He's Not Gaining Any Weight_). Buy this book. Experience it for yourself.

David Hernandez's poetry captures the elegance of a well cooked pot of rice-n-beans and the realities of Chicago street life. Different viewpoints from the Chi-Town Boricua experience are deftly handled here as switch from tragedy to comedy often from page-to-page, stanza-to-stanza, and line-to-line.

Hernandez shows great confidence in his poetics and narrative abilities, unafraid to to manipulate the space on the page while also being able to work in the prose poem to great effect.

The...more David Hernandez's poetry captures the elegance of a well cooked pot of rice-n-beans and the realities of Chicago street life. Different viewpoints from the Chi-Town Boricua experience are deftly handled here as switch from tragedy to comedy often from page-to-page, stanza-to-stanza, and line-to-line.

Hernandez shows great confidence in his poetics and narrative abilities, unafraid to to manipulate the space on the page while also being able to work in the prose poem to great effect.

The only thing to look out for is the glaring number of typos in the first edition copy I have. Luckily, these slight publishing errors do not detract from Hernandez's contagious joy and love of the Chicago that encroaches and sustains him

Poetry of the streets of Chicago neighborhoods by Illinois poet laureate nominee. Poetry that can make even non-poetry readers laugh and cry. This would be a good book for teachers to use to hook their students into poetry. I have.