Spanish Poetry

[PSRemeshChandra]

You may ask me why I do not
Sing about the beautiful
Flowers, rivers, volcanos and
Mountains of my native land;

You come to the street and see the blood of
Children flowing through the streets.

From Third Residence On Earth.
(Slightly edited and recast in the true poetic
form to facilitate singing.)

[gmoffettv]

Thank you for appreciating the great lore of Spanish-language poetry.
I am from Peru and would like to invite anyone who can read Spanish to read the following poets from my country: Eielson, Westphalen, César Moro and Martín Adán. They are fantastic poets, but not very famous outside Peru. Peru has a great poetic tradition.
Thank you for a wonderful forum.

[cafolini]

I was reading the Wikipedia entry on Italian Literature today and one passage in particular caught my eye. It seemed somewhat relevant to what we are talking about with regards to the most recent trends in literature.

"This period is known in the history of Italian literature as the Secentismo. Its writers resorted to exaggeration; they tried to produce effect with what in art is called mannerism or barocchism. Writers vied with one another in their use of metaphors, affectations, hyperbole and other oddities and draw it off from the substantial element of thought."

When I read something by those writers I've already mentioned above, the thought occurs to me that Frost, Auden, or Eliot would never make those particular types of errors. Their poetry has more structure, more development, more depth, more order; which is one of the things I admire in my poets. With Leopardi, Baudelaire, or Tu Fu there's never any blurting. Their passages are fully formed thoughts cut to measure. There's this control and pace to everything they say, which makes this flashy crowd look chaotic and undisciplined. It's the difference between having something to say, and having something to describe, between having a philosophy and having a technique.

Let me try, if I might, to put my remark into context. Sometimes, when I read Roman poetry, I'll get to a passage and think "That's enough mythological allusions. I got the point five examples ago. I don't need to hear about every person in literature who ever drowned. I get it. You had an education." Sometimes, I'll be reading works from the enlightenment and think "Okay, you didn't need that many rhetorical figures to prove your point." The same thing happens when I read Romantics "Christ! Everything reminds this guy of a tree or flower he once saw." Surely, you didn't enjoy Rabelais' endless lists of synonyms, or adverbs, or parlor games. These are all just silly affectations of the times.

I disagree.

...
I burn without end, I search for water,
in your eyes there's no water, they're made of stone...
your mouth tastes of dust, your mouth tastes
like poisoned time, your body tastes
like a well that's been sealed...

I find myself at the end of time
with bad eyes and a cough, rummaging through
the old photos,
there's no one, you're no one,
a heap of ashes and a worn-out broom...