Possibilities in Shade by Mariano Peyrou, trans. Terence Dooley

“‘Fear is the liquid state of / pain as a wound is the solid state of /fear.’

Mariano Peyrou’s pulsating and mesmerizing meditation on love, time, and memory, here elegantly translated by Terence Dooley, is at once minimalist and expansive: its subtle repetition of key nouns and verbs creates a dreamscape in which ‘two parallel lines meet / in your eyes.’ If parallel, how can these lines meet? The path to understanding repeatedly confronts a mountain, because ‘Similarity / and difference only become apparent / with time.’ Peyrou’s Possibilities in Shade is a beautiful love poem, an inspired ode to self-recognition.” —Marjorie Perloff

Shearsman