But the idea of transformation has always been something that I romanticize in a work. I’m cautious of it but I also need it to connect my thoughts with the process of making. That’s really important.
—
Nari Ward
Two Poems by Mauricio Marquina
- Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn by David Seidner
- Dario Fo by Matthew Fleury
- Raymond Voinquel by Samia Saouma
- Bruce Weber by Rosemary Carroll
- Cindy Sherman by Betsy Sussler
Interviews
- S.O.F by Roberto Vargas
- Bluefields by María Gallo
- A Star Is Needed To Get To Heaven by César Young Nuñez
- Momotombo by Charles Tarzian
- A Note To The Readers (More Pleasure Than Work) by Joseph Kosuth
- Contra-Dictions by Roland Legiardi-Laura
- Remembrance And Elegy For A Sailor by Claudia Lars
- Smoke Defines Light: A Fiction with Tarot Readings by Jane Nelson by Craig Gholson
- If Faust Had Been My Daughter by Shelley Berc
- Two Stories by Victor Montejo
- At War by Victoria Redel
- Two Poems by Francisco Arteaga
- El Chupadero by Zoë Anglesey
- The Front by Gina María Caruso
- Two Poems by Isabel de los Ángeles Ruano
- Notes for a Love Story that Never Was by Jacinta Escudos
- The Lilac with Mastering Odor by Jeanne Larson
- Elegy by José Luis Quesada
- Three Poems by Alejandro Bravo
- Seizure by Kimiko Hahn
- Haunted Houses by Lynne Tillman
- Three Poems by Alexis Ramírez
- Pamphlet by Alfonso Quijada Urías
- Il 4 luglio, 1924 by Marguerite Feitlowitz
- Two Poems by Mauricio Marquina
- The Moment of Passion by Ana Istarú
- 1954 by Arturo Arias
- If Death … by Miguel Huezo Mixco
- Talking To Himself by Benjamín Ramón
- The Chief by Quince Duncan
- If I Were May by Carlos Rigby
- Two Poems by Reyes Gilberto Arévalo
- A Possible Account by Rigoberto Paredes
- Two Poems by Roberto Obregon
First Proof
- Three Photographs by Deborah Turbeville
- Revenge of the Nerds by Gretchen Bender
- Gene Meatyard by Guy Mendes
- Cowboy Hat (autoportrait from A.H. Series) by Jimmy DeSana
- Untitled (Falling Woman) by Louis Renzoni
- Equation for Mettropposttersizer by Rammellzee
- Untitled Photograph by Sarah Wells
- HAI DUC by Troy Tecau
- Social Studies by William Coupon
- Girl Observing the Moon by Armando Morales
- Two Photographs by Erwin Blumenfeld
- Two Photographs by David Seidner
More
The Word is All I Need
My friends:
in order to be all, the word is all I need
word of pain that keens into a scream
word that speaks for every hungry eye
word denouncing sham in this dim democratic rite
common word
that serves as well for rancor as for love
word that lifts us bodily toward light
liberating word that breaks our chains
word of truth that very few men heed
word haloed by bright delusions of the soul
My friends:
In order to be all, the word is all I need
word of joy that wells up in our songs
starvation’s word, become a mute reproach
the liar’s word poisoning the air
the tyrant’s word masking the powers
that massacre his sons
the word, my love, that drew me to your breast
and hurled me back with blood upon my brow
human speech in the immense music of its
oceanic roll
the candid word that lays the conscience bare
this common word with which I speak my piece
eternal word, older than the farthest galaxies
and thus,
in order to be all, I live the word
honest wind reaching the ear of the heart
like a flute entoned by the light
that shines in the souls of the just
word that publishes the crimes the silent have condoned
word that is the fire of liberation.
Translated from the Spanish by Jo Anne Engelbert.
Poetry, Of Course!
Simple and intense brotherhood
is the living poetry of this
daily struggle
Translated from the Spanish by Roland Legiardi-Laura.
Born in the city of Chinameca in 1946, Mauricio Marquina is a physician. Part of the literary generation of 1967, Mauricio has published Obscenidades para hacer en casa y otros poemas.
Note: BOMB, Spring/Summer ’84, #9 featured the work of a number of Salvadoran poets selected by INALSE (Institute of the Arts and Letters of El Salvador in Exile). This spring the selection of Salvadoran works has been made by the newly formed Cultural Front of El Salvador. Both representations are major efforts by the intellectual community of El Salvador: the tasks of editing, translating, and transporting work made that much more difficult by the existing state of war. The Cultural Front by making this effort affirms its commitment to rescue and preserve our artistic heritage. Further work is planned including the publication of an anthology entitled Homage to El Salvador. This edition will feature new works by both El Salvadorans and North American poets. Galway Kinnell, Adrienne Rich, Allen Ginsberg, C. K. Williams, Carolyn Forche, and Alice Walker are among the contributors.
Daniel Flores y Ascencio for the Cultural Front of El Salvador in the US.
Related
Staging historical justice in Hernán Ronsino’s Glaxo
“A writer worried about reception is cooking a dead book. A writer’s job is to produce the best possible book in absolute freedom, so the category ‘acceptable’ does not play in the process at all.”
From the train I could look out onto the infinite blue of the sea. I was still exhausted, wakeful from the overnight transatlantic flight to Rome, but looking out at the sea, that Mediterranean sea that was so infinite and so blue, made me forget it all, even myself. I don’t know why.
Originally published in
BOMB 12,
Spring 1985
Cindy Sherman, Dario Fo, Bruce Weber, Lisa Fonssagrives-Penn, and Raymond Voinquel.
