“The unique poem”, the new anthology of Ecuadorian poets. . @notimercio
A total of 59 Ecuadorian writers have gathered their poetic essence in the book ‘The Unique Poem’, presented this Saturday in the auditorium of the Carlos Fuentes Cultural Center of the Economic Culture Fund of Quito.
“We put the authors at a crossroads,” Xavier Oquendo Troncoso, editor of the book, told EFE, explaining that each poet could only publish the poem he considered, which summarizes his essence and represents his entire work, in an exercise that he described “very strong.”
He clarified that it is not an anthology, but rather a group of Ecuadorian poets who came together in the proposal to which they invited contemporary authors through an open call.
Along with each poem is included a portrait of the author, made by the poet and photographer Luis Enrique Yaulema, who traveled to the cities of Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Otavalo, Ambato, Riobamba and Latacunga, where the authors live or work, to capture the essence of them.
«The intention is for each of the fifty-nine authors to be with their word and sensitivity in an iconic moment. And let each portrait and poem be transformed into the reader’s gaze,” reads the book’s prologue.
The text contains the poem titled ‘Indigenous woman seeks sunny balcony to hang her miseries’, by Mariposa Del Castillo, an Ecuadorian poet who has lived in Paris (France) for several years.
In his work, Del Castillo points out that “the mountain is the taciturn link between terrestrial thought and the poet/The calloused land of the Andes knows that the poet is fragile/It receives her with kisses on the eyelids, while the trucks paint black smoke the landscape/Only the moon is saved from that improvised graffiti/It is the only one that recognizes anguish,” the poem reads.
With ten stanzas, his poem speaks, among others, of the Earth, of the indigenous people, of nature, of lagoons, of cities, of friends, of the beauty of the Andes.
«This text represents me because it evokes my roots. It is like a portrait that is drawn parallel to the Andean Sierra, something like when a painter sketches a face. This poem projects memories of my other life in my country and pays tribute to it,” Mariposa Del Castillo told EFE.
And he added that “the Paccha Mamma is a woman, a poet woman, a mountain woman.” EFE