Ivón Gordon Vailakis
Poetry
Critics
MANZANILLA DEL INSOMNIO, Ivón Gordon Vailakis
(El Conejo Press, Quito: 2002)Poetry is a world into which access is at times difficult and requires effort in order to pass the threshold and enter into the domain where the poet will share with us the riches and, at times, the complexity and mystery of creativity. It is for us to savor, understand, marvel and ponder if one or more interpretations may be extracted from the context which, depending on the language, can be melodious, soothing, harsh and/or even mesmerizing. All of this is true and can be applied to Ivon Gordon Vailakis’ Manzanilla del Insomnio. Just a couple of examples can give the reader an idea of the treasure to be found within this book of poetry and how valuable and enriching it is to the mind and soul to explore it.
Como Arbol sin Raiz is an extraordinary poem that emphasizes that all is one and one is all. As the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “All things come out of the one and the one out of all things.” A person has to assume that things in the world are tied together by some kind of integral unity and, hence, everything and anything can be explained and understood rationally despite the diversity and contradictions that exist.
We are all rootless despite the fact that we all have roots and come from somewhere, yet regardless of all this, we survive only thanks to being human, the rest is just part of our makeup. We are what we are, just as we were what we were in the past, and once again will be what we shall be in the future.
Philosophy mingles with love imagery in another poem, Todos Saben, which is hard to forget even when read only once; it needs to be revisited many times in order to be able to absorb all it intends to convey.
Manzanilla del Insomnio is a book to be remembered and cherished for years to come.
Reviewed by:Dr. Nadia Grosser Nagarajan
Dr. Nadia Grosser NagarajanAuthor of:Jewish Tales from Eastern Europe and
Jewish Tales from Eastern Europe andPomegranate Seeds: Latin American Jewish Tales
