The azure yielder
of the skylark’s way or the foam
ceaselessly re-created
made into ultimate marble
there where the mediterranean
navel imposes
its majesty and casts
precious strokes of gold upon cheeks
advanced by Sirius between
two breasts that give
hard commands to the wind
asleep in the blue shepherding
slowness between her thighs
now that i part them a siesta to see her
strictly disciplined horizontals
crowds forge vineyard country
instant shadows glaciers
blueblue cocks
of weather vanes when
their noble bellies isolate
the flow of the ocean as
the young huntress sleeps
and a birch tree quickens upon her knees.


 *Alvaro Figueredo; Uruguay, 1907 - 1966. Poet, essayist,
educator. During his lifetime, he published two books of poetry,
Desvìo de la estrella (Talleres La Paz, 1936; Detour by the Star)
and Mundo a la vez (Rosgal, 1956; "World at Once").
The same year he published his first book he founded the
monthly literary magazine, Mástil. His work has only recently
begun to be more widely studied internationally. He is regarded
as one of the main poets of Uruguay, and in his birthplace Pan
de Azúcar, a cultural center and museum and the town's high
school bear his name.


 = Leon Branton