Poemas Militantes

Author: Raúl Zurita

Translator: Mariela Griffor

Publisher: Orange Monkey Publishing (2014)

The two threads of this book are militancy (civic, political, social) and love (the beloved, the people). There are threads that alternate with each other, but the more intriguing moments are intertwined and this fabric of love and activism is the greatest merit of the book. One of their highest poetic achievements are in describing the ruins present and the future of all humankind—from the Parthenon to the Eiffel Tower, by contrast postulates: "Yet we have erected monuments / Evergreen: / two gazes that cross, for example, / my love for you, for example, that precedes me / thousands of thousands of years / and I will survive until the last of the / men contemplating / the last of the sunset." It is not purely a militant poem, but a love poem, or the ultimate poem.