This collection features poetry from renowned Spanish poet and co-founder of the International Poetry Festival of Granada, Fernando Valverde. Each poem has been translated into English by Gordon E. McNeer. Both Spanish and English versions of the poems are included.
“The pelicans of San Juan del Sur hover about until spotting their prey, and suddenly they dive straight down. The impact against the water is brutal, and they always come out with a fish in their beaks. Fernando Valverde was amazed at the pinpoint accuracy of their hunt until a fisherman revealed to him that this marvel concealed an enormous tragedy. From beating their faces so often against the ocean many pelicans die blind, lost in the horizon. This book speaks of all of this, of the destiny of the pelicans and how the dreams of every day people crash once and again against reality. Full of dazzling images, of defining situations, such as agony and suffering, of the color and pain of infancy; its author serves us up these beautiful, moving poems, evidence of pity for others and merciless toward the one who bears witness or remembers. Beautiful poems.”
Darío Jaramillo
“Meditative and exact; clear and an enemy of frivolity; as respectful of literature as with history, the poetry of Fernando Valverde opens up all at once to the ear, the eye and the consciousness of the reader, achieving the equation that Paul Valery demanded of the good poem: a perfect mixture of sound and sense.”
Benjamín Prado
