MIDDAY SHADOWS
"Poetry is poetry, as art is art. Great poems have been written in many languages."
So writes the author of this ambitious collection of verse, in which he imaginatively uses two languages, English and Spanish, in a mutually supporting and exciting dual role. His words, from the Introduction, are well borne out.
The colorful interweaving of words and phrases from both tongues heightens the poetic quality and makes us aware, as we read, of the artistically international language art - whether it be experienced through literature, music, painting, or sculpture.
Pablo Picasso's monumental painting, "Guernica," is a work that was indigenous to the Spanish experience at a specific time. But its world-encompassing message, a scathing denunciation of the horrors of modern warfare, is internationally shared.
To share the two modes of expression in Midday Shadows - the strengths of Spanish and the powers of English - is to be drawn, by poet Ibáñez, from the place where you sit and read the poems, out into the whole wide world.
Review by scholar Jesus Rosales
