The best part about picking Latin American poetry as a study topic is I get to read books like Jorge Luis Borges’ Fervor de Buenos Aires and legitimately refer to the activity as “working”…it’s “working” the way the guy who tests the ferris wheel at the carnival is “working”. Borges is one of my favourite poets [...]
Archive for October, 2008
JLB in BA
Posted in Lista on October 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Brazilian Poetry: Mario de Andrade
Posted in Lista on October 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
In order to try and cover as much of Latin America as possible, I put two Brazilian poets on the list in spite of not knowing any Portuguese. Because I can speak and read Spanish (and French a little) I was able to read some of the works in their original language without relying too [...]
Gabriela Mistral “Desolación”
Posted in Uncategorized on October 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
It was interesting to read Desolación immediately after reading Ibarbourou’s Lenguas, the contrast between the two is striking. Mistral’s poetry is circumspect and dark while Ibarbourou’s is full of sharp bright contrasts, soaring emotional heights and crashing lows. Interestingly, I found myself remembering my trip to Chile as I was reading it, remembering first of all Monte Grande, where [...]
Juana de America: Affective Language and S&M
Posted in Lista, tagged Add new tag on October 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
The night before reading Juana de Ibarbourou’s text Las lenguas del diamante I had a dream that I had become possessed by her disembodied spirit. This turned out to be somewhat profetic as I read her poems and found myself becoming obsessed with them. Juana is AWESOME! Her verses are charged, they burn the eyes! I used [...]
