Javier Taboada

Juan Martínez (1933–2007)

Six Poems from 'Angel of Fire,' translated by Sergio Sarano

[The following commentary is taken from the gathering of North and South American poetry (“from origins to present”) that Javier Taboada and I are now preparing and that includes a different poem of Martínez’s, but Sarano’s attempt, as shown here, is the first at a broader range of translation. (J.R.)]

II

Toward a poetry and poetics of the Americas (34)

Diocelina Restrepo, 'What the Great Armadillo Said in Dreams to Me'

Narrated by Diocelina Restrepo, Yukpa People, Sokorpá, Colombia

Assembled and translated by Javier Taboada after Anne Goletz’s research

From Rothenberg and Taboada, the big book of the Americas, now in progress

“our food, the worm

“is among you

“we suffer, for our land has been burned

Toward a poetry and poetics of the Americas (33)

'The Fall of Tenochtitlán,' 1521

The Great Tenochtitlán by Diego Rivera
The Great Tenochtitlán by Diego Rivera

[It’s now the 500th year exactly since the conquest and sacking of the imperial Aztec city of Tenochtitlán by Hernán Cortés and allies, concerning which the following segment from the gathering of “The poetry and poetics of the Americas,” assembled by Javier Taboada and me, as it will appear in the final version.

            A work still in progress.]

 

Toward a poetry and poetics of the Americas (20)

Joanna Kitchel, El Niño Fidencio, and Essie Parrish

[In putting together a transnational and historical anthology of the Americas North and South (now in progress), Javier Taboada and I are looking also at founders and representatives of new or revived American-based religions, who speak and write in forms of prophetic and visionary language that resembles what we otherwise would think of as open-verse poetry. In the present instance the outsider poets on display are Joanna Kitchel, a follower of Mother Anne Lee and the Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming (a.k.a. Shakers); El Niño Fidencio (Fidencio Constantino Síntora), a mid–twentieth-century healer and cult figure from Mexico; and Essie Parrish, cofounder of the Pomo Indian “dreamer religion” of California. The images above are of Fidencio and Parrish. (J.R.)]

[In putting together a transnational and historical anthology of the Americas North and South (now in progress), Javier Taboada and I are looking also at founders and representatives of new or revived American-based religions, who speak and write in forms of prophetic and visionary language that resembles what we otherwise would think of as open-verse poetry. In the present instance the outsider poets on display are Joanna Kitchel, a follower of Mother Anne Lee and the Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Coming (a.k.a.

Postface to 'The President of Desolation'

Now available from Black Widow Press

[In announcing the publication of my latest book of poems from Black Widow Press, I thought the following postface might be of interest in what I say about the book’s title and the concerns that inform the book as a whole. Further information, for those who seek it, can be found at the Black Widow website, but for now I would hope to make the context of the work, including a number of procedural and aleatory poems, as clear as possible.

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