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Self-portrait in the zone of silence

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  • Author: Aridjis, Homero
    Date:
    Created
    2023
    Summary:

    An exciting new collection of poems by "one of the Spanish-speaking world's greatest living writers" (LA Review of Books). Self-Portrait in the Zone of Silence, by the renowned Mexican writer Homero Aridjis, is a brilliant collection of poems written in and for the new century. Aridjis seeks spiritual transformation through encounters with mythical animals, family ghosts, migrant workers, Mexico's oppressed, female saints, other writers (such as Jorge Luis Borges and Philip Lamantia), and naked angels in the metro. We find tributes to Goya and Heraclitus, denunciations of drug traffickers and political figureheads, and unforgettable imaginary landscapes. As Aridjis himself writes: "a poem is like a door / we've never passed through..." And now past eighty, Aridjis reflects on the past and ponders the future. "Surrounded by light and the warbling of birds," he writes, "I live in a state of poetry, because for me, being and making poetry are the same."

    Genre:
    Subject(s): Aridjis, Homero
    Original Publisher: New York, New Directions
    Language(s): English
    ISBN: 9780811231749
    Collection(s)/Series: Griffin Poetry Prize 2024