Tag: Spanish poetry
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disbelief y Concha Méndez
In my fascination with the short lyric, one of the variations I enjoy are poems that work like door hinges into an emotion. These poems walk the fine line of narrative and abstract language, and take on risks in order to create an emotional impression. This week’s poem – “No es aire lo que respiro…” […]
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modifying with ángel gonzález
This week’s poem comes from Spanish poet Ángel González. It speaks of the ways words modify and change what they are attached to. It’s the kind of poem that if you speak too much about it, it flies away, like the butterfly in the poem. I offer my own translation from the Spanish with the […]
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* nosing with quevedo & williams
One of the more exciting moments in reading is coming across texts that show a writer’s own reading creeping into their writing. In my own work, I can think of an orange I inadvertantly stole from a Gary Soto poem as well as a prayer reformulated from an Ernest Hemingway short story. These are […]
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* mirroring & anthilling with garcía lorca
This week’s poem is a translation of a short lyric from Federico García Lorca’s Suite de los Espejos (Suite of the Mirrors). Reading through the suites, I was impressed again and again by García Lorca’s facility to estrange us from the everyday world, only to bring us back. His lyrics are infused with a purposeful sense of […]
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* living, dreaming & apples
Between living and dreaming there is a third thing. Guess it. — Antonio Machado I look at this quote and see much of the poetic craft summed up in it. There is the living of everyday life – work, chores, relationships, food, tying your shoelaces – all the things that make up routine, the background […]
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* translation 2/3 on the friday influence
(from Greguerias – Ramon Gomez de la Serna) * Curious about the earth, the sky keeps opening and closing the clouds. * The hour differs throughout the stars. In some it is yesterday, in others today, and in others centuries have passed. * He had a keyring so dusty, he looked like a fisherman of […]