A rhythmic blend of language and myth, this collection creates a poetic atlas of cultures as it documents the centuries-long, open-sea migrations from Africa to the Caribbean to the Florida coast. The image of the “wise fish” is recurrent in these poems, a witness whose eyes were never closed to the perilous journeys that brought so many to the shores of Miami. Tempered by loss and infused with the musicality of the oral tradition, this collection heralds the vibrant Afro-Latino-Caribbean culture emerging from the migratory experience.

Adrian Castro, a Cuban-Dominican performance poet and Ifa priest from Miami, writes as if “Chano Pozo were hitting the keys of a typewriter instead of the skin of a drum.” Wise Fish is his second collection.