LatinosUSA

• Juan Re Crivello: Do you think poetry is back in fashion?

Jorge López Llorente: I don’t think poetry is something fashionable, nor does it need to be. Maybe oversimplified, quotable snippets of it are now more popular on social media, and obviously more people have access to poetry now than ever before thanks to the Internet, but it’s nowhere near the mainstream. That’s not a problem though, because poetry thrives at the edges of things, at the limits of language, and I’m happy to see that the minority of people who are truly interested in these borderlands can now read a greater variety of poetry more easily, which matters more than mainstream crowd-pleasing in the end. 

• JRC: Is your poetry created daily, or do you wait to be inspired to write it?

JLL: I write poetry as ideas come to me, with bouts of frenzied writing and fallow periods, but I’m always thinking about it, tuned in to sources of inspiration anywhere. It’s very different from prose: even though I never stick to strict schedules or word counts regardless of genre, I do need more planning and a daily commitment when writing fiction, whereas my poetry flows better without that control.

• JRC: What is your next publishing project? Could you tell us how it came about?

JLL: I have a poetry chapbook in English ready to be published soon, titled “Dreamescapes.” After focusing my debut poetry collection, “Los ojos desdibujados,” on identity and what being yourself means, mostly with first-person voices, I wanted to widen my scope in this new project, with more third-person voices and landscape-based poems, beyond the individual. The chapbook also mixes narrative and lyrical poetry, as well as English and Spanish poetic influences, as my fiction and poetry in both languages cross-pollinate. I wrote it in one go in summer, partly at the beach and mostly during Madrid’s brutal heatwaves, thinking of daydreams and the sea – how they wash away our gray realities but can leave murky sediment, how they cut us adrift from ourselves for better or for worse. So this is a summery book with a dark underbelly, a bit of summertime sadness.

• JRC: What city do you live in, and can you describe your favorite bar or café?

JLL: I live in Madrid, Spain, where there are many excellent cafés and bars, some with a long literary history. My favorite one is Estupenda Café Bar, which is Twin Peaks-themed, zigzag floors and all, because I adore David Lynch and his aesthetic, which has greatly influenced my writing. It’s a quirky but welcoming place, enlivened by cultural events like book launches, live music, etc. 

Sample poem from «Los ojos desdibujados« («Blurred Eyes»), translated by Jorge:

LUNA FUERA DE CURSO by Jorge López Llorente

«¡Qué error ser yo debajo de la luna!».
LEOPOLDO MARÍA PANERO

La luna espía, vaga y se asoma
por tus agujeros, entre tus dobleces, al salirse de su curso,
y desvela tu piel bajo las camisas sudadas
donde te eclipsas.

Por la mañana uno repta a la oficina,
que le animaliza, le cubre de sucios pelajes,
uniformes, trajes salvajes, duras pieles opacas,
en aquelarres de balidos y graznidos calculados
(«qué tal, buenos días, qué tal»),
mientras reflejos en escaparates se agazapan, listos
para atacar,
como locas hienas con sus manchas.

Pero vas mendigando lunas, hambriento,
y así las nieblas te muerden.
Pero la luna, vacía de signo, te rellena:
señal de bengala, luz verde en el muelle, para que pavesas
se reaviven.
Ahí te escondes, de vigilia en lo invisible;
solo en tu sombra y en tu iluminada noche,
tu fuego a oscuras personal, vas de bestia a bella persona.

La luna tira de los que se vacían de espejos:
se rompen vuestras ropas, al transformaros
en vosotros mismos (quizá en otra voz u otra cama u otro mirar),
bestial pureza
con brío de crisálida que se abre, al redibujaros,
y escupís vuestros nombres, vuestros cuerpos cantan
al son de músicas que oís solos
cada uno, al esculpiros en apolíneos desnudos renacentistas.

Así ilumínanos,
halo de luna oscura: al anochecer,
desvístenos de horóscopos e instrucciones,
vuélvenos del revés, hasta que suba la marea, que cruja una verdadera piel.

VOID-OF-COURSE MOON by Jorge López Llorente

“What a mistake to be myself under the moon!”
LEOPOLDO MARÍA PANERO

The moon spies, strays and peeps out
through your holes, between your folds, as it goes off course,
and unveils your skin under the sweaty shirts
where you’re eclipsed.

In the morning, one crawls to the office,
which animalizes oneself, covered with dirty fur coats,
uniforms, feral suits, stiff opaque hides,
in covens of bleatings and calculated squawks
(“you alright, good morning, you alright”),
while reflections in store windows crouch, ready
for an attack
like mad hyenas with their spotted pelt.

But you go begging for moons, hungry,
and thus the fog bites you.
But the moon, void of signs, fills you:
a signal flare, a green light on the dock, for sparks
to rekindle.
There you hide, wide awake in the unseen;
alone in your shadow and in your illuminated night,
your personal fire in the dark, you go from beast to human beauty.

The moon pulls those who empty themselves of mirrors:
your clothes are torn, as you all transform
into yourselves (perhaps in another voice or another bed or another gaze),
savagely pure
with the verve of an opening chrysalis, redrawn,
and you spit out your names, your bodies singing
to tunes that only each of you hear
by yourselves, as you sculpt yourselves into Apollonian Renaissance nudes.

Enlighten us,
dark moon halo: at dusk,
strip us of horoscopes and instructions,
turn us inside out, until the tide rises, until an authentic skin crackles.

Author Biography

Jorge López Llorente is a bilingual writer from Madrid (Spain), who studied English Literature at Oxford University. His debut poetry collection, «Los ojos desdibujados,» is out with Cuadranta. His chapbook, «Dreamescapes,» shortlisted for the Poetry London Pamphlet Prize, is forthcoming. His poetry and fiction appeared in UK, US, Canadian, European and Latin American magazines, as well as on Spain’s National Radio (RNE).

Link to purchase Jorge’s most recently published poetry book:

Link to Jorge’s most recent interview: https://altavozcultural.com/2022/03/22/los-ojos-desdibujados-jorge-lopez-llorente/