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Poetic Justice
Cristi谩n G贸mez Olivares鈥� writing is personal and political
Photo: Matt Shiffler
Cristi谩n G贸mez OlivaresGrowing up in Chile during the violently repressive dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, Cristi谩n G贸mez Olivares struggled to make sense of his country鈥檚 tumultuous political situation.
鈥淚 had many unanswered questions; naively enough, I thought literature might provide some answers,鈥� said G贸mez Olivares, PhD, a poet and 星空传媒 associate professor of Spanish.
Nine collections of poetry later, G贸mez Olivares—who signs his books Cristi谩n G贸mez O.—continues to explore how national and global events mark individuals.
His 2020 award-winning La p茅rdida de las colonias de ultramar (Loss of the overseas territories) is a meditation on the different forms of estrangement written before the COVID-19 pandemic began. 鈥淭he timing was paradoxically spot on,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f there鈥檚 anything that better defines the idea of estrangement than this pandemic, you name it.鈥�
G贸mez Olivares came to the United States in 2002 for a residency at the International Writers Program at the University of Iowa, where he later earned his PhD in Spanish. In 2011, he joined the 星空传媒 faculty.
Working with his students—many of whom aren鈥檛 native Spanish speakers—to parse the nuances of Spanish literature inspires his work. 鈥淭he experiences of my students talking about language, about how we read, about how we communicate, inform my own poems,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 see myself as a teacher and then a poet. They鈥檙e all the same.鈥�
Bare Knuckle Fights*
an excerpt from a poem about two opponents
...One
of the two鈥檚 going to fall soon, because of course
the fight is fixed, the way Destiny鈥檚 fixed
in Greek tragedies: the Oracle already knows
which of the two is going to lose, and which of the two
will have to ask Fortune for a fortune
I鈥檓 still waiting for my fight with McGregor,
I still want to get out of these godforsaken holes, lost
in the middle of amphetamines and this life which isn鈥檛
even middle class, my American Dream consists of
getting my nose broken for a couple more dollars:
a forest鈥檚 nothing more than the possibility of being a forest.
A fight the chance of being a tree.
But a tree after winter.
The branches fallen and the trunk bare.
But standing
still. But still standing.
By Cristi谩n G贸mez Olivares with translation by David McLoghlin
La p茅rdida de las colonias de ultramar (Loss of the overseas territories) won the 2020 poetry prize from the International Latinx and Latin American Book Fair at Tufts University. The English translation is forthcoming.