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One Heron in Buenos Aires
Some paint brush described a
thin and white letter S
on the brown water and there
suddenly was the heron,
the tourists did not see her,
but she did see everything and everyone,
quick and motionless on the miracle of the water.
A mirror in the middle of the negligent city, transparently painted,
an open buttonhole that she fastened at a sole moment,
all garments dressed by the winter.
She kept at the fatal shore of her own Amazon,
the contemptuous foot fold over and over against her own body
,
as to say my balance is done
of a perennial profile
and of a perennial way that do not recognize them.
It was a patient harpoon only paying attention to the calculus
between the playful shriek of the domestic ducks,
only she is precise like a tiny scythe
at the Japanese Garden that merrily exposed her graces,
with that eastern serenity that knows nothing
of the brutal murders of a hungry heron.
All have left, but equal way I have seen nothing:
a second has been missing among the things, I believed;
an instant at the following instant
was bloodyly jumped over,
but when the heron flew away
another life than hers at the pond was missing.
Luis Benítez was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina (1956).
Member of the Latin-American Academy of Poetry, the International Society of Writers,
the World Poets Society, the Argentinean Society of Writers and the Argentinean
Foundation for the Poetry. He has received the tittle of Compagnon de la Poésie,
from La Porte des Poétes Association, France. His 9 books of poetry, 2 essays
and 2 novels were published in Argentina, Chile, Mexico, Uruguay, USA and Venezuela.
Between another local and international awards, he has received: La Porte des
Poétes International Award (Paris, 1991); Biennial Award of the Argentinean
Poetry (Buenos Aires, 1991); Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat Foundation Award
of Poetry (Buenos Aires, 1996); International Award of Fiction (Uruguay, 1996);
Primo Premio Tusculorum di Poesia (Italy, 1996) and 10me. Concours International
de Poésie, accesit (Paris, 2003).
Since the ´90s, several reviews publish his poems in translation: Upstairs at Duroc and La Porte
des Poétes (from Paris, France); The Boston Literary Review, Barnwood, And Then, Tamarind, Szrine,
Green Mountains, Luz Bilingual and La Nuez (from USA); Inclement Poetry, Cauldrom, Littoral, Awe,
Manifold and Poetry Monthly (from United Kingdom); Poetry Salzburg Review (from Austria); L´Ortica
and Isola Nigra (from Italy), The Instanbul Literary Review (from Turkey) and others.
Poetry books by the author:
Poems from the Earth and the Memory (Buenos Aires, 1980),
Mythologies/The Ballad of the Lost Woman (Buenos Aires, 1983),
Behering and Other Poems (1st edition, Buenos Aires, 1985; 2nd edition Mexico DF, 1995),
Wars, Epitaphs and Conversations (Buenos Aires, 1989),
Fractal (Buenos Aires, 1991),
The Past and the Eves (Venezuela, 1995),
Selected Poems (USA, 1996),
The Mare of the Night (Chile, 2001),
The Venenero and other poems (Buenos Aires, 2005)
Email: Luis Benítez
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