DISTANCIA CERO
At Zero Distance we love life.
Daniel Sacchero launched his book Distancia Cero, a collection of poems that speak of places visited and traversed, near and far, in constant motion.
Starting from his poem Distancia Cero, Daniel’s book speaks to migrants in their duality, as they swing back and forth between their places of birth and these lands. With an honest and direct style, the book provides comfort to those who struggle to retain their mother tongue, their culture and their roots.
EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK:
Distancia Cero
This introductory poem is included in addition to the book's contents and is provided here in full for you.
I hope you enjoy it.
Listen to the whole poem below:
Distancia Cero
My home in Hurstbridge.
Here are my records, my books and my orchard.
Here my soulmate.
Here my children grew up.
Light plunges in through the windows.
Zero distance to my present.
Campo de Piedra Pomez, Catamarca Province. 12,212 km.
A landscape under construction,
mobility of the universe, volcanoes, lava, sand.
The wind sculpts the shapes.
Zero distance to the geological landscape
in a permanent state of imperceptible change.
Ubirr, Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. 15,150 km.
Promontory where our ancestors dwelled,
where the gods danced with the turtles and the barramundi.
from where they headed south, east and west.
Zero distance to the stories of this continent,
of the all-renewing flood.
Chalten, Santa Cruz Province. 12,766 km.
Hill of smoke, glaciers, Las Vueltas river,
valley of polished pebbles, your outline in the horizon,
wayfarer's land.
Zero distance to what is possible,
to contemplating what we call life.
Upper Stand, Monumental of Nuñez Stadium. 1,928 km.
The commons. Here we are, together,
singing, jumping, as one,
we huddle in a clamor of a goal.
Zero distance to being Riverplatense,
among a horde of likes.
My house in Burzaco, Buenos Aires Province. 32 km.
I grew up here with my mother, my siblings,
my grandparents and my friends.
From here my first departure, my first broke ties.
The decision to grow and become self-reliant .
Zero distance to my identity, to my journey through life,
the endless pendulation of place.
Amata, South Australia. 13,160 km.
In the boulders, symbols,
steering the thirsty to water,
to the crossing of desert tracks.
Here millenary knolls protect
the mysteries of the final hours.
Zero distance to the stories of the desert,
to feeling one with the cosmos.
Yard of the Casona del Molino, Salta Province. 14,070 km.
Empanadas, steak, wine,
guitars, drums and songs.
Verses reel off every throat.
The spirit of Cuchi embodied.
Zero distance to the people of Salta, to the zamba and the chacarera,
to the barely cracked dawn.
Salado River, General Belgrano, Buenos Aires Province. 1,388 km.
Fishing for mullet, silverside or trahira,
eating in the shade of trees on a summer day,
letting go to the flow of the river's murky water,
to my grandfather's laugher.
Zero distance to my teenage years.
Cape Conran, State of Victoria. 11,370 km.
The sea, the cabins in the dunes,
early morning fishing, mates around the fire, nephews,
brothers,
people I love,
gathering, year after year.
Zero distance to my future,
to the sight of my children at play.
zero distance
infinite distance
the journey continues
oscillating between here and there
*Translated by Eyal Chipkiewicz
where the roads begin
where we connect to a land without scale
where we belong to the universe
indivisible
in harmony
where we feel protected, blissful and expectant
zero distance is where we love life
Buying the book:
Hard copies and downloadable eBook versions are available from this site. All major credit cards are accepted.
It can also be purhased from A Voz Limpia via Bandcamp from this link.
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What other people say:
In an interview for SBS Español with Esther Lozano, she writes
(translated from Spanish):
With his work, Daniel speaks to the Latin American immigrant in his unresolved duality of coming and going between the place where he was born and this land, like a pendulum that swings between two countries. When asked if nostalgia is a feeling that reflects loss or gain, Sacchero assures that "that fact of wanting the place where we were born or live, is something positive because having these two places that pull our soul makes us grow, learn and experience things that others cannot.
ESTHER LOZANO, SBS ESPAÑOL
Listen to the interview here.
Images from the book:
All photographs contained in the book, as well as on this site, were taken by me and are available for individual purchase from the shop.
If you like what you see I would love a review!
Publishing information:
Published by A Voz Limpia
First published 2021
Text design and typesetting Daniel Sacchero and Eyal Chipkiewicz
Cover photo: Cruce de caminos by Daniel Sacchero
All photographs by Daniel Sacchero except p. 8 by Silvi Glattauer
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Printed in Australia
A catalogue record for this book is available from the National Library of Australia
ISBN 978-0-9954307-9-2