Luto para la poesía / Francisco Massiani

Mourning for Poetry

To Eugenio in memoriam
To David Mauri, to Níyume

A day of mourning for Spanish language and love poetry:

A something dies
So much dies
The spirit of the written word
Of great poetry
The poet Eugenio Montejo has died
I recall him sitting in a little bar
In the Latin Quarter
Surely with a coffee
Maybe a beer
With his round eyeglasses
His blue jacket
On that chilly afternoon, didn’t I see
David Mauri,
Marta Araujo with her profoundly blue eyes,
The poet Enrique H. D’Jesús,
Indio Guerra,
The great Tarek Souki?
We spoke briefly
Eugenio was sparing in speech:
“Do you know Marie De Place?”
I asked him
And he answered, like someone for whom every word hurts
Every pulse
Of every spoken word:
“Yes, we had something.”
That was it.
Yes: Poetry’s heart is wounded
Eugenio’s delicate and large heart
Yes: I saw him once and that was it.
A day of mourning for Spanish language poetry
And love poetry
He died in silence, without fanfare,
Eugenio Montejo.




{ Francisco Massiani, Tal Cual, 12 June 2008 }