Poetry Will Survive Even Amidst Alarming Functional Illiteracy

In Mexico where violence permeates everyday life, poet Hermann Bellinghausen (Mexico City, 1953) remarks, poetry manages to slip through any crack, because it is a genre that will always survive. This Saturday, Bellinghausen will present his anthology, I wake up in the sun, at the Palacio de Minería International Book Fair (FILPM).

Apart from being a poet, Bellinghausen is also a narrator, journalist, chronicler and collaborator of The Conference. He believes that participating in this book fair provides an invaluable opportunity for dialogue between authors and readers.

“This project has several aspects; It includes texts dedicated to my parents who passed away many years ago. They are part of a love and dispute that, as happens to all, do not end in our lifetime.

“While they are not necessarily recurring or permanent themes in my works, I am interested in the issues of love and desire, fascination with landscape and wild animals. I am intrigued by the physical sensation and experience of exploring the sea, desert, jungle, and mountains.

“A beautiful river surpasses any poem. Furthermore, poetry does not need to be testimonial, or even tell the truth. It is not a statement before the Public Ministry or before a literary jury. However, poetry imposes its truth.

“I don’t try to be descriptive or narrative with my poems. I let them decide their own path and flow. I only make amends for their oversights and poorly chosen words. I rarely decide if I should measure the verses, if they should rhyme, as well as the length, among other details.

Sometimes a foreign voice or hand tries to impose itself and the final result, if not negotiated by the parties, will be absurd, irrational or inexplicable. It is inherent to poetic expression. One can be intimate, schizoid, hallucinated bipolar, or assume a collective voice.

Co-edited by the autonomous universities of Sinaloa and Mexico City, the poetic anthology brings together five sections written in recent years: At the end of the day, Under the scar, Wake up in the sun, Monologues of the monkey and We are stones.

In the first section, the poet’s familial relationships are addressed from an intimate and emotional perspective. In speech for my mother and my father’s window the author explores the complexities and challenges arising from antagonisms and complicities.

The second section reflects an air of sadness, disappointment and loss, while in Wake up in the sun erotic themes are narrated.

In the fourth section, Bellinghausen shows the importance of Chiapas in his life and work, based on his experience as a chronicler during the armed uprising of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation.

The final section, We are stones, is articulated by texts that allude to different protagonists: the dead, the young and the birds.

For the cultural promoter, the new platforms or electronic formats “have shocked and even erased the ways of doing and creating, sacrificed for speed, all of this enhanced at the same time by the brand new artificial intelligence.

“However, poetry, ancient and global, seems compatible with this new territory of communication. In a world threatened by the most alarming functional illiteracy in history, poetry will always survive.

“Regarding images and ideas, I usually don’t choose them. One repeats oneself, of course, and has obsessions. Or they appear before me and I only photograph them. How many times does one discover what one thinks when writing it. And once written, he doesn’t know how to explain it. It doesn’t matter; If the poem is good and lucky, it will live on its own.

Regardless of who is considered the best or worst poet, who is criticized by readers and critics, who is paid, awarded, granted a scholarship or adored, who grinds and refines, and who gives it all away, if you had this job , at any age, poetry compels you to do it from the day it arrives and it will stay with you for as long as you feel like it. concluded the author.

I wake up to the sun will be presented today at 4 p.m. in the Sinaloa pavilion of the FILPM. Accompanying him will be the poet and essayist José Ángel Leyva and the moderator Cesia Moreno.

Tomorrow at 12 noon, Hermann Bellinghausen, Eduardo Mosches and Cynthia Pech will discuss their works Awake in the sun, Two terroirs and unique winter, respectively, in the Hall of the Academy of Engineering of the book meeting.

Additionally, on Sunday, at 2 p.m., Bellinghausen will introduce readers to the work Insurrection of words: Contemporary poets in Mexican languages, a compilation of 132 authors and poems in 45 native languages. The event will take place in Auditorium Six.