Review: The poet takes a look

Brooklyn-born poet Martín Espada’s 2021 poetry collection, “Floaters,” won the National Book Award, and another, “The Republic of Poetry,” was a finalist for the Pulitzer prize. In his newest collection, “Jailbreak of Sparrows,” he sings his characteristic songs of praise, protest and sorrow in a loosely linear chronicle of his own life and Puerto-Rican heritage.

He begins with the title poem, which recalls the 1950 bombing of Utuado, his patrilineal hometown in Puerto Rico. Espada writes how his father, near the end of his life, mailed Martín a photograph of a poster he saw during a 1967 visit back home, asking people to vote for “Bread, Land, Freedom.” With this photo, Espada writes, “The poet walked through the jailhouse door. There was a jailbreak of sparrows.”

In “Look at This,” Esp