Exercising With Labyrinthitis

"Arar", de Ángel Gracia



TO PLAY THE SUN

Arar
Angel Gracia.
Prames Zaragoza, 2010. 64 pages

"Where are we / when we are alone?" Angel Gracia asked the best poem of his magnificent book of mountain lakes . "Who is listening / what we say to God ?"... These are questions that matter and could not get an answer extrapoética. Fortunately, however, Grace did not fall into the temptation of trying to answer, because one of his many virtues as a poet is to know shut up time, giving their fair share poems and nothing else. The materialist Mallarmé said that poetry is done with words, but, having every reason in the world, was wrong, for poetry is not words. Sometimes lying platitudes, and also the sentence is another vices that a good poet should be avoided. Baudelaire
went much smarter to understand that good poems often leave the reader with a sense of dissatisfaction, at least in a first reading. A poem that is running does not work, so one of the greatest allies of the poet is silence, provided this is not a coward or a cheat, because nothing solemn or simple mystery and emptiness are other enemies of poetry: a poem should never be smarter than an intelligent reader.
Like all books, Arar, the excellent new collection of poems by Grace, begins in silence. This is made explicit, but also knows it without cheating Gracia and profits honestly about their strengths, like a good craftsman who knows the materials they work, and precedents of the trade. Consuela, well, know that Zaragoza is young poets who know the history of poetry began in Gil de Viedma, and can summon or conjure Blake Hölderlin very aware of what they are doing, without conceit or ornaments, with the ease with which a scientist is not starting from zero for its research, but takes advantage of what they discovered or demonstrated for all those who came before him.
I do not feel very comfortable outlining poetry, but I'm happy to applaud here a collection of poems as these, complex but simple, dense but nothing inflated, sometimes long but still "small" and modest in the sense that matters. In this case, a pantheistic me more than the previous books in Gracia is also shown more desolate, perhaps even more grim: many "dregs" many "killed" many "no" latent in the mud, which the book's title want to remove and bring to light to watch ... so then thanks a love poem as bright as "Joy" or find powerful images ("a child is thunderbolt to touch the sun", or "river "...), rags priceless insights ("Are you happy at the finish line) and much of what Lorca called "poetic logic" ("The world is well done because my father did), without lapsing into irrationalism whimsical and inexpensive that has so burdened the literature, especially that written in verse. After
Valhondo and Book of ibones Finally, Arar is a consistent and nurturing way. And very good news for everyone.

(Review published in the supplement "Arts & Letters" from Heraldo de Aragón , April 15, 2o10)