47/2021. Clean Slate by Daisy Zamora (translated by mother and daughter team Elinor and Margaret Randall), is a collection of poetry from 1968-93 in both the original Spanish and an English translation which the author read, revised, and approved. Zamora demonstrates her ability to write on varied subjects, from both public and private life, in a range of differing forms, and she has the rare gift of being able to create both perfect miniature epigrams and thoughtful multi-page poems that have earned their expansiveness.

Quotes

Precisely

Precisely because I do not have
the beautiful words I need
I call upon my acts
to speak to you.

El final (in the original Spanish because it works so well )

Y tenazmente seguimos buscando los recovecos
adivinando señas queriendo llegar primero al
final del cuento cuando lo verdadero lo único
lo cierto es que no hay no existe no lo sabre-
mos nunca.

The End (English translation)

Tenacious, we keep on searching corners
reading signs wanting to be the first
to reach the end of the story when
what's real what's true what we know
is there is no end it doesn't exist
we will never get there.

A Leveled Field

The suitcase filled with infant's clothes
I kept so carefully,
the little girl crossing the street in her mother's arms,
or the ephemeral sight of a pregnant woman
waiting for a bus.

Whatever meeting/ Spark/ Lights the fire
of this heart caught unaware: dry hay, tinder
reduced to smoking ashes, a leveled field.

From Letter to Coronel Urtecho

I've been sending these words your way
as one would loose a dark and tightly woven braid,
freeing the hair to take flight
upon the wind. ( )