Casi toda la música y otros poemas = Almost all the music and other poems /

Upon reading the prolog and preface of this slim volume, we understand immediately that we are in the hands of a major contemporary Spanish poet; González has won everything from the Prince of Asturias Literary Prize to the Federico García Lorca International Prize for Poetry. A humorously heretical story explains the book's theme. God, upon hearing the music of the cosmos, turns up the volume to help finish the work of creation. Similarly taken with music, González tries his hand at recreating the universe and ends up with poetry. Although the poems here are in free verse, the section "Almost All the Music" is filled with musical themes-waltzes, tangos, sonatas, elegies, odes, and scales-and uses lyrical tactics such as repetition, alliteration, and refrain; some poems even have musical instruction, as in the end of "Revelation": "Four more measures, and then solos." In "Dawn Tango," the song interestingly takes on a life of its own: "The woman sings./ I know you won't/ return.../// The song flees,/ drunk and sobbing,/ towards the street." The section closes with "Epilogue," a short, haunting poem that reiterates González's belief that God exists in music: "When the musician stores his cello/ in its black tomb,/ God's corpse smells of resin." The "Other Poems" of the volume focus on González's poetics: he scoffs at obscurity and aligns himself with the popular and the true. The playfulness of poems like "I've Had It with Bartók..." is better understood in the original, but notes from the skillful translator ensure that not all meaning is lost. Highly recommended for music lovers, libraries, and bookstores.Salwa Jabado, New York City (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved All rights reserved.