A Tree Within

A Tree Within ( Arbol Adentro ), the first collection of new poems by the great Mexican author Octavio Paz since his Return ( Vuelta ) of 1975, was originally published as the final section of The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987 . Among these later poems is a series of works dedicated to such artists as Miró, Balthus, Duchamp, Rauschenberg, Tapies, Alechinsky, Monet, and Matta, as well as a number of epigrammatic and Chinese-like lyrics. Two remarkable long poems ––”I Speak of the City,” a Whitmanesque apocalyptic evocation of the contemporary urban nightmare, and “Letter of Testimony,” a meditation on love and death––are emblematic of the mature poet in a prophetic voice.