José Daniel Espejo, poet: “Poetry loses its power if we only place it in affluent realities”

2023-12-20 23:21:17

Depoetize language without losing the beauty. Place the precise word and give a name to that which does not have one. Putting the focus where no poet is capable of putting it: on the underworld and the harshness of social exclusion. Lower your head before verses that make you observe that spiral that drives people out of society. Feel with each poem that we are part of an unfair and inhuman system. Explore the darkest areas of the city and also our gloomy interior secrets. José Daniel Espejo (Orihuela, 1975), writer, bookseller and activist is able to reflect all of this in Perro ghost (Candaya, 2023). A choral collection of poems, where the Polígono de la Paz (Murcia), the place where he grew up, acquires indirect importance.

“The idea was to create like a school and that there was not one voice, but rather different voices that were involved,” he explains in an interview with elDiario.es. The collection of poems acquires a ghostly mood typical of Rulfo. In this sense, the poet clarifies that there is also “a poetic background of the Spoon River Anthology”, by the North American Edgar Lee Masters. Espejo’s voice takes you to the polygons as we progress through the reading. He confesses that one of the objectives was “for the reader to be involved in the violence that occurs in those places.” And the book, far from banal decorations, goes directly to what matters. “I have looked for the zero degree of language and I have started to build from there, without clinging to an inertia of resources,” he adds.

The author points out that his poems are “composed from orality”, since in it lies “the rhythm, the cadence and a harmonious and fluid prosody”. He has tried to “disconnect the complacency of the setting” to create a more “abrupt” book. The poems have a different voice, but connected by the same repertoire as if it were a ‘collage’ of marginalization and social exclusion, since “there are terms from the world of drugs or local terms,” ​​he emphasizes. From the verses it is clear that the family ties that appear in the book are rotten. And the author states that “the family is the place where you inherit poverty and toxic ways of relating to the world.”

In Ghost Dog, the reader will find an idea of ​​a distant god. Something like the divine exclusion that the disadvantaged can feel or, rather, a divine figure linked to rejection. The author himself considers that “the characters that populate the book have been expelled from a framework of beliefs.” However, there is also room for topics such as addictions, loneliness, marginality or the harshness of climate problems. The book takes place in Murcia and Almería, a desert area of ​​the Iberian Peninsula and considered a climatic martyrdom. The scenarios proposed in the work are “sacrifice zones” as he himself highlights. Places where “contaminating, destroying and degrading does not matter.”

Espejo’s collection of poems also has a political meaning that consists of “changing the focus, looking at peripheral or marginal realities on which the life of a part of the population takes place,” according to what he says. He maintains that the political meaning of his poems has to do with with “looking in dark or underrepresented areas”, acquiring sufficient capacity to “observe beneath the layers of taboo that causes people who live vulnerable realities to be despised by society” and that contempt towards them becomes “ legitimation of the system.” However, he clarifies that he is not seeking “any type of collective action” with the book.

One of the traits that the characters in Ghost Dog share is the deterioration of their teeth. For this reason, he assures that this fact is “a very clear mark of proletariat” and that he was aware of it later. “It’s the system’s way of reminding you that something is wrong with you or that you are not worthy,” he explains. The poet, who works for an NGO, admits that his work experience has played a fundamental role when proposing the book, because “our tendency to make social exclusion taboo has to do with fear” and with knowing that “nothing “It can save us from that in the face of protective measures.” He suggests that what he is trying to do is look beneath those taboos because “there is a literary wealth that can be explored.”

Another of the challenges that the book faces are the problems that plague the current generation. In each verse a pang, a moan or a “every man for himself” is transmitted, as the poet highlights. “The challenge of our generation and our century is climate change, the peak of fossil fuels and the planet’s resources. The Earth is no longer what it was 20 years ago and is on the verge of a profound transformation,” he laments. He insists that this is a systemic issue, where “the people in charge are also in a critical situation” and the only thing left for the population is to “face a civilizational and social collapse” in the best possible way.

With Phantom Dog, the poet wanted to close a cycle that was still open with his previous book Lakes of North America. He admits that it has been difficult for him to “get out of that autobiographical wave of the previous book,” because when talking about ghosting or dissolution of identity he did not want to “do it from a firm and defined central self.” Furthermore, he suggests that he sees this work as a “closing of the cycle”, where the common thread has been marked by the loss of identity, exclusion and marginalization.

The truth is that if we stop at the background of each verse, Espejo’s personal and poetic voice is so powerful that it has the ability to blend into those choral poems of denunciation. “While I was writing, I also became aware of the areas of my life that have been at risk,” he points out. One of his objectives was to “transpose readers so that they feel part of the risks” displayed throughout the book and also that they can “feel part of the solution.” For this reason, he refers to the position of contemporary Spanish poetry, being critical because “it looks at its navel too much and only focuses on affluent realities.” However, he is not entirely pessimistic because “there are also young poets who break that canon.”

Espejo defends his poetic position by highlighting that “poetry loses its power if we only place it in comfortable realities.” He is blunt, assuring that “without risk there is no poetic” and that what he seeks is to get away from “the usual topos and languages.” He emphasizes that “it is worth taking the risk” because “without risk there is no literature.”