POETIC DELIGHTS BY LUIS BENITEZ-ARGENTINA

 

1-THE PEARL FISHERMAN

This evening and part of the night

I plunged into the dense sea again

where we beings and things float.

I descended for pearls to show to men

who fear even the risk of the bank.

This evening and part of the night

I was amidst that silence, in that deepness

where the most infinite pleasure would be to dissolve

and I knew that on all roads

there are monsters for those who fear them.

Swimming I arrived where there is no love or hatred,

you simply float on an eternal present

and everything you regard is your contemporary:

nothing else is carried by the waves from there.

I took this pearl and now offer it to you.

But when I wanted to return,

I saw no man on the bank.

I didn`t see the bank. All is sea.

Those who fear the bank

do not know they walk the sea.

2-THIS MORNING I HAVE WRITTEN TWO POEMS

This morning I have written two poems.

I no longer ask myself about the meaning

this obscure office has or has not.

It`s simply another, possible, way of being alive.

I wonder about the origin

of these two things that are now on the table,

2

not exactly made of paper and pigments.

About the men who have said it better

and are dead now.

About the centuries of wars and peaces

elapsed between words.

I wonder about the names and the countenance

of the one who somewhere else in the world

has left two similar things on his table

and also doubts my existence.

I wonder about the thousands of days and nights

that must have elapsed for us to do this.

About the hundreds of people

who have contributed with verses.

I wonder why, a short while ago,

this world has changed twice.

3-THE AFTERNOON OF THE ELEPHANT

To my friend, poet Nicholas Stix,

wherever he is.

do you remember, nick, the afternoon of the elephant?

you were overwhelmed by the endless rejection

that married woman a mother of four children

had dealt you over the telephone

the only thing she was giving you for

eleven years then

at least

when she was single she said it to your face

3

and you were irritated really angry

because I had arrived one hour later

and left you alone in huge new york

one more hour to yourself

neither my taxi nor my apologies soothed

your anglo-saxon rage

you said one is alone only in big cities

do you remember, nickie, the afternoon of the elephant?

many rains and snows and footsteps

of italian shoes and sport shoes

passed by that village corner

but it hasn`t yet forgotten the afternoon of the elephant

you lectured me in your icy english

without realizing that I was also wrecked

and then that huge shadow

you spoke of the tediousness of cities

of the yellow weariness that sets

to the west of your brooklyn bridge

and of the young women crossing alone

and in buses the silky mazes of central park

heading for those rooms where heating fails them

and then those majestic footsteps

you went on saying they had not included you in that anthology

and said that her husband was bald

lisping and he designed comics

4

the fool of comics you repeated

the fool of children magazines you repeated

while people

always alert people

ran off the sidewalks

knocked chairs down

and forgot the children in their mad race

you said routine is an old blind lady

begging for coins along bond street and harlem

and that everyone allows her in their houses

then that fat one the bulk

stayed put near our table

in the deserted corner while the cashier

trembling called the police

five thousand kilograms of peaceful forest

crashing the asphalt an immense grey epiphany

four meters high and that funny trunk

with a finger at the end

that tasted fruit from the fallen tables

and hurled the stained tablecloths in amusement

during its escape from some circus or zoo it crashed

that old lady beggar who saddens

the oppressed people at home

would look fearlessly at us like all things that

smilingly repeat I am man`s friend

AUTHOR:

LUIS BENITEZ-ARGENTINA

Luis Benítez was born in Buenos Aires on November 10, 1956. His 45 books of

poetry, essays, and fiction have been published in Argentina, Chile, France,

Italy, Mexico, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Venezuela, UK, USA and Uruguay.

According to the London-based Ars Notoria Magazine, he is considered one of

the most prominent voices in contemporary Argentine poetry and a leading

figure in the genre throughout Latin America. He has received the title of

Compagnon de la Poèsie from the Association La Porte des Poètes, based at

the Université de La Sorbonne in Paris, France. He is a member of the

Argentine PEN Center, the Association of Argentine Poets, and the Society of

Writers of the Argentine Republic. Among other awards, his literary work has

received La Porte des Poètes International Poetry Prize, Paris, France, 1991;

Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat Foundation Poetry Award, Buenos Aires,

Argentina, 1996; Tuscolorum di Poesia Prize, Sicily, Italy, 1996; Letras de Oro

Prize, Buenos Aires, 2003; Accesit 10éme. Concours International de Poésie,

Paris, 2003; “Macedonio Palomino” International Prize for Published Works.

Aguascalientes, Mexico, 2007; International Best Poets & Translators Prize,

awarded by The International Poetry Translation and Research Centre, The

Journal of Rendition of International Poetry [Multilingual], and The Board of

Directors of World Union of Poetry Magazines, Chongqing, People's Republic of

China, 2024, and American Poet of the Year Award, awarded by the United

Nations World Silk Road Forum and the Silk Road International Federation,

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2025.