Featured poet: Miguel Naranjo Ríos

Miguel Naranjo Ríos (1970) is a poet, editor and enthusiast for Chilean folklore, collector of the discography of Violeta Parra, Los Jaivas and Margot Loyola, editor of the Chilean edition of Martín Fierro, devotee of open air markets, cumbia and rock, ex-student of Literature and current book designer. He directs the popular collection of poetry “Vox Populi” for Ediciones Tácitas. His latest books are Verse [Verso] (2006, Ed. Tácitas) and Book [Libro] (2016, Ed. Tácitas).

Below are two poems from Libro:

i lived a great love
with the best poet in Chile
the most marvelous in the country
she changed poetry forever
with every verse of hers
some of which
were dedicated to me
in body and soul
from her pen
from her soul
i received the most beautiful words
a woman has addressed to me
i lived an idyll
in prose and verse
with those indelible words
i could never repay
because love
isn’t like poetry
because poetry
doesn’t look
a thing like love

*

sometimes you find dry leaves
when opening my books
clippings
business cards
pamphlets often appear between their pages
half-read abandoned scripts
made of a bus ticket
the telephone bill
the admission to some show
inside those books
a lock of hair
the lost banknote
underlined words