Poetry Shmoetry

Well I am finally doing what I came here to do. To study. I know, it took until midterms to finally kick in, but let's just say this month's revenue at Starbuck's, my new official study spot, is up 50% from last month thanks to my caramel macchiato addiction.  But midterms left me mentally and physically drained, no matter how much coffee I had in me.  My most draining midterm was probably my Literatura Actual class. A.K.A. Read and Analyze Poetry Until You Pass Out class.  We have a huge packet filled with poems from Vicente Huidobro, Olivero Girondo, Jorge Luis Borges...you know, authors that are known by everybody...and we need to read them, then write a three paragraph analysis on what the poem is saying.  Yeah, I was freaking out.  For example, when given a poem like the one below written by Borges, I stare at it like this for about 20 minutes.  Not only is the vocabulary an intimidation factor, but also the fact that I have absolutely NO clue what the poem is talking about because for some reason, poets never write exactly what they mean.  They disguise their message so people actually need to think about what they're reading.

A un gato

No son más silenciosos los espejos
Ni más furtiva el alba aventurera;
Eres, bajo la luna, esa pantera
Que nos es dado divisar de lejos.
Por obra indescifrable de un decreto
Divino, te buscamos vanamente;
Más remoto que el Ganges y el poniente,
Tuya es la soledad, tuyo el secreto.
Tu lomo condesciende a la morosa
Caricia de mi mano.
Has admitido,
Desde esa eternidad que ya es olvido,
El amor de la mano recelosa.
En otro tiempo estás.
Eres el dueño
de un ámbito cerrado como un sueño.


Now, depending on how you view poetry, the arbitrariness of a poem can make it beautiful, or it can make it the most annoying form of art in the world.  My view is the latter.  But who knows, by the end of the semester my attitude might change.  Until then I'll just BS my way through.  Get this, in my midterm I wrote, "El humor de esta poema refleja lo absurdo de la realidad."  In English, "The humor in this poem reflects the absurdity of reality". Who actually writes that?? Ha! I guess I do. The professor is going to eat that up. 


But midterms are done and I can finally relax a little. I also have a trip to Machu Picchu in a few weeks to look forward to. Rough life, I know.


Que te vayas bien. Over and out.


-Mike