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Sonnet to the Serpent and Other Poems sees E.R. Pulgar distill heartbreak, sex, gender, money, astrology, Venezuelan mysticism, and the home into a defiant formal experiment. Using the Shakespearean sonnet to make a bastardized sonnet crown, Rios-Pulgar explores the darkness of every sign using surrealist imagery based on Ophiuchus, a forgotten constellation forever wrestling a cosmic snake.
"I could see these poems being read out loud in the middle of Fellini’s Satriycon banquet, as much as I could see friend groups forgoing the aux cord to take turns reading these lines in a packed Uber. We put our stories in the sky so we won’t lose them and Pulgar here has generously carved a place for us queers to set up camp, “where all our toes curl.” These poems remind me of the pleasure I get from the wine poetry of Abu Nuwas, the party-crashing manual of al-Baghdadi, and the steamy chic of someone like Marilyn Hacker. Following in the tradition of the Orphic Hymns where each one comes alongside a prescribed libation, I suggest pairing this book with a lychee martini."
-Òscar Moisés Díaz, Poet-Astrologer
"Sonnet to the Serpent and Other Poems blew me away in all the best possible ways. The language, the fantastically wide-ranging and code-switching diction, the amazing images, the sacred/profane, the use and (wonderful) abuse of the form. To keep it alive and well and writhing around in fine ophidian form, the sonnet indeed needs practitioners like E.R. Pulgar."
-Moira Egan
"In E.R. Pulgar’s Sonnet to the Serpent and Other Poems, they summon the greatest forces of poetry to make a music that captivates, ascends, and begins language anew. In this glorious book, the mystical is a generative, poetic power. Pulgar calls to serpents in many forms, as both enemy and friend, and they become muses, demons, lovers, and most of all, ecstatic principles. These poems call to gods, such as “Ophiuchus, the forgotten one,” who also summon the power of the snake. In this book, the voice of the persona is so free. They can exclaim: “I am Earth. I own all pleasure: honey,/ Clover, spice, the green realm of the surreal” and no one can stop them. And in doing so, they present a form for all poetry to now be within. These poems are holy snakes. They tell us to trust our own serpentine poetic instincts. To spread ourselves around the poem and see within it. These poems give us hope."
-Dorothea Lasky
Sonnet to the Serpent and Other Poems sees E.R. Pulgar distill heartbreak, sex, gender, money, astrology, Venezuelan mysticism, and the home into a defiant formal experiment. Using the Shakespearean sonnet to make a bastardized sonnet crown, Rios-Pulgar explores the darkness of every sign using surrealist imagery based on Ophiuchus, a forgotten constellation forever wrestling a cosmic snake.
"I could see these poems being read out loud in the middle of Fellini’s Satriycon banquet, as much as I could see friend groups forgoing the aux cord to take turns reading these lines in a packed Uber. We put our stories in the sky so we won’t lose them and Pulgar here has generously carved a place for us queers to set up camp, “where all our toes curl.” These poems remind me of the pleasure I get from the wine poetry of Abu Nuwas, the party-crashing manual of al-Baghdadi, and the steamy chic of someone like Marilyn Hacker. Following in the tradition of the Orphic Hymns where each one comes alongside a prescribed libation, I suggest pairing this book with a lychee martini."
-Òscar Moisés Díaz, Poet-Astrologer
"Sonnet to the Serpent and Other Poems blew me away in all the best possible ways. The language, the fantastically wide-ranging and code-switching diction, the amazing images, the sacred/profane, the use and (wonderful) abuse of the form. To keep it alive and well and writhing around in fine ophidian form, the sonnet indeed needs practitioners like E.R. Pulgar."
-Moira Egan
"In E.R. Pulgar’s Sonnet to the Serpent and Other Poems, they summon the greatest forces of poetry to make a music that captivates, ascends, and begins language anew. In this glorious book, the mystical is a generative, poetic power. Pulgar calls to serpents in many forms, as both enemy and friend, and they become muses, demons, lovers, and most of all, ecstatic principles. These poems call to gods, such as “Ophiuchus, the forgotten one,” who also summon the power of the snake. In this book, the voice of the persona is so free. They can exclaim: “I am Earth. I own all pleasure: honey,/ Clover, spice, the green realm of the surreal” and no one can stop them. And in doing so, they present a form for all poetry to now be within. These poems are holy snakes. They tell us to trust our own serpentine poetic instincts. To spread ourselves around the poem and see within it. These poems give us hope."
-Dorothea Lasky