Los ojos del pelícano

by Fernando Valverde

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Fernando Valverde has been voted the most relevant Spanish-language poet born since 1970 by nearly two hundred critics and researchers from more than one hundred international universities (Harvard, Oxford, Columbia, Princeton, Bologna, Salamanca and the Sorbonne). His books have been published in different countries in Europe and America and translated into several languages. He has received some of the most significant awards for poetry in Spanish, among them the Federico García Lorca, the Emilio Alarcos del Principado de Asturias, and the Antonio Machado. His last book, The Insistence of Harm, has been the most-sold book of poetry in Spain and has received the Book of the Year award from the Latino American Writers Institute of the City University of New York. In 2014, he was nominated for a Latin Grammy for his collaboration in a work of fusion between poetry and flamenco. For ten years, he has worked as a journalist for the Spanish newspaper El País. He directs the International Festival of Poetry in Granada—one of the most important literary events in Europe—that has featured more than 300 authors, including several Nobel Prize laureates.

Reviews

[César Iván · Rating 2 out of 5]

Debo admitir que hay algunos hallazgos poéticos interesantes, pero no termina por concretarse como algo más, y se queda en ser un libro de poemas plano, vacío y falto de recursos originales.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked this stanza in "Sombras":

Ahora estás en Praga
y confías tu suerte al corazón del río
--Esos troncos que flotan
tienen la mordedura de la brisa,
dices mientras escuchas sus quejidos
que recuerdan a ti
como un lugar cerrado advierte de una araña.

I also really liked the closer, "El último momento," and this couplet: "El tacto guarda heridas que nadie le reprocha / como el mar se percibe en la brisa salada" (66).

Overall, this seems like poetry of ideas and less about specific examples of those ideas. The title, whose significance is clarified by the back cover's blurb, is a tragically beautiful metaphor that I don't think ever meets its potential in the book. Obviously most do not share my opinion--this author has received a ton of recognition in Spain, so what do I know? Not my style, I guess.