Poesia Reunida

Argentine expatriate Calveyra is better known in Europe, where his work has been translated and has a following, than in the Americas. This collected works open with his first volume, Cartas para que la alegr\xEDa (""Letters So That Happiness""), which successfully recaptures the lost geography of childhood as well as the curt and precise language of country people (Calveyra was born in the province of Entre R\xEDos in 1929). Although written in the early 1950s, this collection did not appear in full until 2002. Calveyra studied with Carlos Mastronardi at the University of la Plata in the early 1950s and went to Paris in 1958 and again in 1961, never to return. But he continued to write sure-footedly in Spanish, using the language as his anchor and his memories as his subject matter as he effectively evoked other times, places, and circumstances. Well practiced in the poet's gift of synthesis and distillation, Calveyra crosses over several genres while remaining a poet at heart; works like Gregorian Cornfield use the longer verses of earlier Spanish poetic forms even as they defy convention. The result is an important collection by a poet who should be better known outside of Europe. A useful chronology opens the book, but it's a shame that publication dates for each collection were not included. Recommended for all large library collections and lovers of poetry. Catherine Rend\xF3n, Savannah, GA