I recently received a lovely book called The FSG Book of Twentieth Century Latin American Poetry. If you care about Latin poetry, it’s a good refresher on some of your favorite authors and a wonderful introduction to poets you don’t know.

One poet I was introduced to is Carlos Drummond de Andrade. In “Desaparecimento De Luisa Porto” (The Disappearance of Luisa Porto), he writes:

Ask anyone who knows/the whereabout of Luisa Porto/to please notify her residence/at 48 Santos Oleos Street./So many people disappear, year after year,/in a city like Rio,/ Luisa Porto may never be found./There’s no use looking any longer/for my dear daughter Luisa, who (…)/looms motionless/caught in that heart of that invisible star/Love.

As often happens in Brazilian poetry and music, the lyrical beauty comes with a strong, dark undertow of tragedy. When Luisa’s mother clarifies that her daughter had no boyfriend to run away with, and then begs the reader to “Forget politics for a moment,” reflecting that so many people disappear in Rio De Janeiro, you realize this is not a romantic poem. It’s a desperate cry of a mother to a beloved daughter who has vanished in a very violent, tumultuous time and place. And with that in mind, it’s one of the more intense love poems i’ve read.

Read more at Alt Latino

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