title
Description
Mapa de Ruta
Incesante búsqueda de horizontes
curiosidad de paisajes no vividos
imaginados quizás
bajo un cielo enorme, abierto, inabarcable.
tireless search for horizons
curiosity about unexperienced landscapes
maybe imagined
under a big, open,
unreacheable sky.
Mapa de Ruta, my second book, is a collection of poems and photographs that trace the journey through places visited and explored, near and far, in Australia. Between May and July 2022, with my dear friends Ollie and Marianne and my partner Silvi, we traveled from Melbourne to the Dampier Peninsula, exploring the Kimberley region and the route that bisects Australia, from Port Augusta to Darwin. Around twelve thousand kilometers on paved and gravel roads, from the cold of the South to the warmth of the North. These poems and photographs are the result of that trip. They were written before, during, and after this adventure, when it had already become part of our collective memory.
Excerpt from the book: This introductory poem is included in addition to the book's contents and is reproduced here in its entirety. I hope you enjoy it.
16°25'S, 123°01'E
memoria, universo
El calor amarillo del fuego
resalta las nostalgias de la noche
profunda de galaxias, de constelaciones,
de otros paisajes, de otras urbes,
el recuerdo de personas no presentes.
Innato fluir del tiempo
cruzando ríos mansos,
ríos torrentosos,
ríos vertiginosos,
ríos quietos,
ríos secos.
Memorias grabadas en nuestra memoria
referencias circulares de nosotros mismos
creciendo,
cambiando,
evolucionando,
recreando,
renaciendo,
¿era yo o era otro en la niebla densa del pasado?
Memorias formadas por nuestras memorias,
imaginados espejos rodeándonos en la oscuridad,
centrándose en nuestra respiración,
en nuestra inmensa soledad,
miro a las estrellas, desaparezco en ellas.
Memory, Universetranslated from the spanish and read in english by the author
Continental Distance
Translated and read in English by the author
What other people say
The words of this poet-geographer are always an echo of the soul's thoughts when confronted with the majesty of nature. Under his words, time dissolves between the earth's contours and the clouds pierced by the sun's rays. Subtle, intuitive, and meticulous are each verses of these poems. Paths that weave feelings, questions, and desires. Intricate routes in the design of the new person that the adventurer becomes when they dare to delve into themselves, when they immerse themselves in the land that embraces them, that makes them dream.
(Translated from spanish)
Maria Jose Herrera