Hernández, Raúl: Unemployed Poems

Unemployed Poems by Raúl Hernández Translated by John Burns (Cardboard House Press, paperback) Publication Date: May 16, 2018 Publisher Marketing: Poetry. Latinx Studies. "The images in UNEMPLOYED POEMS turn around the vocation of the poet and the transience of this vocation, as an extension of the fleeting nature of life itself. A man mends a stitch in his jacket as he thinks of the impermanence of a poem that flees from his memory, or writes the existential log of attempts to be present in life through a poorly paid job. Two persistent keys to all the poetry of Hernández are also found here: the struggle to prevent the loss of language, a condition presented as a threat; as well as a certain principle that Hernández calls 'the purity of the distraction,' and is ultimately the element that gives his poems freshness and spontaneity. These two qualities trickle through his following books and can be understood as characteristics of the poetic speech of Raúl Hernández."—Ramón Díaz Eterov