🦋 Let us give thanks for our poverty, said the guy dressed in rags.
Roberto Bolaño saw himself as a poet rather than a novelist: he said, “the poetry makes me blush less.” Now English speakers will have a chance to read some of his poetry; New Directions is publishing his first collection of poems, The Romantic Dogs, in translation this fall. (I can't tell whether the edition will be bilingual.*) At New Directions' site, you can read his poem The Worm, to get a taste -- I found it enchanting.
 (This poem sounds a lot like Ginsberg to my ears -- I hope that is honest reading and not just free-associating off the New Directions imprint. Lines like "built of brick and mortar, between United States and Mexico" and "Twilights that enveloped Lisa's father/ at the beginning of the fifties" bring "Howl" clearly to mind. Oh and "I saw him with my own eyes" is awesome.) *Aha! Amazon says it is bilingual.
posted afternoon of Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
➳ More posts about The Romantic Dogs
➳ More posts about Poetry
➳ More posts about Roberto Bolaño
➳ More posts about Readings
The poetry has me a little nervous. I want to enjoy it, but my reading of any poetry is notoriously poor.
posted morning of September 10th, 2008 by badger
Me too! But I did genuinely enjoy reading "The Worm." Hoping I can go back to it and reread enough to get some real understanding.
My normal experience with poetry is to read it for the sound and atmosphere of it the first several times, and maybe later get to the point of reading it for meaning.
posted morning of September 10th, 2008 by Jeremy
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