Supersonic Death

 

Supersonic Death 

 

by Nicanor Parra

 

Translated by Liz Werner

zooms by at high speed

in the direction of the old folks’ home

without paying any attention to me

as if I were a red-lipped teenager

when death knows full well I’m her fiance

and all I do these days is yawn

evasive death—indifferent death

you are the biggest flirt of all

Source: Antipoems by Nicanor Parra

“Real seriousness," Nicanor Parra, the antipoet of Chile, has said, rests in "the comic. He was one of the most important Latin American poets of his time, the originator of so-called antipoetry (poetry that opposes traditional poetic techniques or styles}. He was a poet and an academic, a mathematician and a physicist, who gained international recognition for his anti-poetry." Pablo Neruda rated him as ” One of the great names in the literature of our language. “ Parra died at the age of 103 in 2018.

Another antipoem posted below is a valid reminder to many of the Facebook Poets 😊

To Young Poets

Young Poets Write as you will

In whatever style you like

Too much blood has run under the bridge

To go on believing That only one road is right.

In poetry everything is permitted.

With only this condition of course,

You have to improve the blank page.