Juan Felipe Herrera's 1978-79 collection Antiteatro y poemas
I found this work in a book. Written by Juan Felipe Herrera, who was US Poet Laureate from 2015 to 2017. He was only 30 when he wrote this and he is 71 now. This poem kind of blows me away with its imagery and the mastery he has for words and how prolific he is. I used google to translate it, and I don't speak Spanish, so it is not all it could be.
Antitheater and Poems THE LETTER / ADDRESS NOTES
There are no characters . The group acts collectively and individually to discourage the emotion , image and flame of a certain slavery . It is possible to use several direct representations of the text : branches , M-16. seagulls , tuberculosis, secretaries , elderly , bees , grass , padlocks . Or you can try something different : seagull branches , elderly pasture , bees padlocks . It essential is that the group will become a liquid metamorphic : I pastosecretariacandado .
The costumes will be the strategy to build , compared to piblico , a mural humando of cold . All will be wrapped in various shades of blue. The uniform : pants in size large (Khaki) and shirts without sleeves. A gray tone will be applied around the eyes .
The text of the Letter, as well as works as malleable material to perform the work , simultaneously serves as a manual for dramatic direction . These aspects form the two voices of the Letter (or a voice with two major tensions ). The two will be projected individually and together : the emphasis and dynamics will be determined by the members . So compelling it is that the voice is unwrap among all : synthesized (coral) in certain moments , fractured (individual) in others . The Charter has a thousand voices and one at a time
Everything happens in an invisible cell . It happens in a certain city / mind / person / crowd / mineral / space . No there is the time . The Letter is something eternal . His voice is blueness : witness the constant acceleration of his imprisonment .
The purpose of the antitheater will be to propose to the members of the group as well as to the community / public most of the work not as actors and listeners but as authors and creators . In this way the antitheater was born and its goal: to create / sustain / launch a vascular / acoustic / visual electricity : from the inside of the forehead / back : deciphering the impossible ; a hoarse sweat on the temples of the world ; the burning ice of human iron that imprisons / rests : The Letter.
It will buzz your throat / you will turn towards different horizons / driven / sitting / lying down / humpbacked / you will write on an invisible iron / on the wall facing the universe / the wall will buzz: a vertical ocean /
I write on this table of seas a paragraph between the tables of sand
you will look for the eyes with your fingers / you will walk / you will run at frantic speeds / maybe blind / stuttering /
a pilgrimage of eyes towards the voice
you will have a lump in your throat / the knot will throb / grow / you will be suffocating / you will explode with screams /
out here when someone screams you will transform into elastic branches of crying / grotesque sounds will escape
the branches get wet from gray lips
and watch them
you will get pregnant / you will become a bird / flying slowly /
the words leave the beams of men and bellies like seagulls with scare / thunder bellies prisoner / slave salt
your body will be interwoven with others / you will groan / you will continue writing about something impalpable / hard / you will sweat madly / you will resolve madly / you will catch yourself in an invisible box / you will push / press yourself / with your hands with your fury / you will hit against that thick space cube /
It's Friday / Quentino your 18 years in the cell throb like fists children
you will quickly link the others in a knot / then you will explode against
the wall / your shoulders / your back / will whip / your nails will scratch the transparent box / slowly / your blood will decrease / you will get sick / cough / moan / smell like hospitals / you will be dying /
here there is also an iron tuberculosis
you will start to fall apart / suddenly you will fall / the others will remain indifferent / frozen / you will become a violent skin of bodies / you will devour the others / the immobile ones / you will swallow them / you will drown them with laughter /
the spider laugh
the spider laugh
the spider laugh
it will increase laughter / your skin / animal of bodies / it will start to turn / fast / it will crash against the wall / the wall of an office / with typewriters / machines-men / machines-women / administrators and secretaries sisearan /
daggers born from the nipples of administrators / naked secretaries in a shorthand
of links
on the wall you will discover something like a
calendar / point to a day
particular / you will crouch / you will be machine
with delusional eyes /
You will pronounce his name in hoarse / long / loud / ephemeral voices /
it's Friday
twist your eyes / slowly / open
a door / tempting chairs (of bodies) /
when you sit down you will become old / take
a cup of coffee / you will fail to control your fingers /
when the old men rock in dark armchairs and from time to time, they watch their trembling hands
the cup will fall / it will tear itself apart /
you will find yourself looking for it / you will not be able
to squeeze the hands / you will moan / you will contemplate
your useless arms / slowly / you will force the hands
towards the eyes: the howl of the grass will explode
the jaws of the grass that growl
the grass will sweat a certain cold / you
will crouch / you will look for a cigar
in the bag / you will search the purse
for a match / you will lean towards the light / you will grab a photo / you will approach it to the eyes / your hands will shake / the photo will escape / you will take it in the air / something in your hands / it will resurrect / it will expand / it will become something radiant / it will be a seagull: you will see it disappear in the sky /
and then they will remember your eyebrows and your fists guitars that played
sun and moon when we only asked for land
you will lower your head / eyes to the ground / you will walk / lost in triangles / the wall will surprise you / you will push it / you will sweat / you will be determined to collapse it / with your old arms / with your veins / you will explode / you will fly / you will finally be free / you will jump / stutter / of joy you will hit others / you will win towards the universe / a wall will be born / a circular wall / it will compress you towards the center of the world / you will drag it a small distance / it will compress you: you will be engulfed in an iron flower / it will close / it will will open / not release you /
an infinite petal between two imaginary locks
the flower will press / squeeze / press it will hum slowly / the buzz will increase / you will become a row marching zigzag / you will be a solemn army of banners
quentino bees
bees we are like buzzing in manca wax
making the iodine flag will advance the ranks / fiercely join / split up / one will load M-16 rifles / aim at the others / the hungry / the stutterers / the brave / shoot / between the chamber of directors
and perfume penetrating his hands the frame
of an M-16
with the rifles / the army will hit the dead / the army will growl / twist / swell / celebrate in anger
Somoza's throat
between laughter some will begin to listen / others will smell something in the universe / will point to the dark / perhaps towards someone / will advance slowly / with rifles / will follow / grunt /
"From now on we dedicate our efforts to maintain, disseminate and defend all the doctrine postulates ... from now on we dedicate our efforts to maintain, disseminate, and defend all the doctrine postulates,"
the dead will wake up / crawl with their weapons / take off against the army / kill some / with a quick shot the army will kill everyone / but one / escape / shoot him /
of the dead army you will wake up: you will watch it in tears /
and exploding in the street 30 years of smoke and blood nothing changes / quentino
Quentino nothing changes / only you / yesterday your father died in a guard hospital / today
the others will go to different horizons / driven / hunchbacked / you will be alone / watching the corpse / you will feel a buzz in space / the walkers will groan / frantic they will repeat word fragments / you will leave the body / the buzz will accelerate / you will take a few steps: you will run behind of the others /
I walk the streets I look for the eyes / and
I look for them when there is more light I look for them
you will moan / shout / nobody will listen to you / nobody / the buzz will explode / you will fall on your knees / you will follow / you will fall again / you will scream / the others will hit the wall of invisible columns / they will fight / they will break their weapons against space / their bones will bleed / they will raise their eyes / shoulders / arms little by little / they will hug the wall / they will bend their saliva thighs / their sleeping breasts and suede / on the wall / they will kiss her / they will murmur / they will smile / they will console themselves / you will try to detach them / you will shout at them / stutter / you will jump into the universe / with your arms open / with your white eyes of hope / the invisible wall will catch you buzzing III
but people get used to the bars
eternal between the eyes and summer /
B STREET SECOND FLOOR MURAL / 14x14
9F flat surfaces two chairs the table with one thin hand thinking in front her hair black endless falling into the crevices of light the floor full of rumor hexagons & quadrilateral pieces of wind scrapes the windows & cuts her eyes her wrists yellow doors warm with short men bleeding dreams in ashtrays
the throat in the radio & gray saxophones sing
THE FURIA DE LA BEEAS
when the shoulders of the buildings burned when the breasts of the women made tigers when the boy listened with the razors of his eyes when the old arm spilled rifles on the
hospitals when the judge's voice turned black salamander when the guards threw up the clothes of the birds when the wind nailed the convent with gangrene when Emilio blindly marked the sun between the graves when the salt mine concentrated on the tip of
your veins when the crying rope became a woman in your
throat
https://books.google.com/books?id=PdCqdIqEEzMC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=tomas+mendoza+harrell&source=bl&ots=YcY2KD6Q6d&sig=ACfU3U2_pMZVnZDKlD7RLA4wjqTaELOsjA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiTyf-vvr3kAhUBZKwKHafbAKYQ6AEwDXoECAgQAQ#v=snippet&q=juan%20felipe&f=false