[A few years
back, I shared a handful of my favorite American poems in a
weeklong series. Before I go back to sharing poems for money—well, teaching
them as part of my job, but you get the idea—I wanted to highlight another week’s
worth of favorite poems and a couple reasons why I love each. Share your
favorites in comments, please!]
Today favorite
poem is Martín Espada’s “Who
Burns for the Perfection of Paper” (1993).
I love “Perfection”
because it lays bare (literally as well as figuratively) the hidden labor that
constructs and sustains our society, especially at its highest and most
seemingly rarefied levels. I love it because it’s not a political treatise
about those realities but a visceral engagement with them, through the lens of
a single speaker’s journey, identity, and evolving perspective on himself and
his worlds. And I love it because I’ve heard Espada read it,
and can say (as proudly as possible) that I share the same public
university system with this immensely talented poet.
Last favorite tomorrow,
Ben
PS. Thoughts on this
poem? Other favorites you’d share?
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