Rincón de Haikus - Mario Benedetti

Rating: ★★★★
02/11/13

5-7-5. A Japanese structure with Latin American content. And that's why it didn't bother me that most of these poems don't have the characteristic connection with nature that can be seen in the traditional haiku; in Bashō's work, for example. The roots of Benedetti's haiku is purely Latin American. 
Love, wit, solitude, pain, uncertainty, history, time, death. 

There are some poems that were okay, but others I really loved.

hay pocas cosas
tan ensordecedoras
como el silencio

somos tristeza
por eso la alegría
es una hazaña

hay sinvergüenzas
que agravian hieren matan /
tienen estatuas

un pesimista
es sólo un optimista
bien informado

A good read, indeed.