josé maría Valderrama Vega Returns with “Crystal Verses”

A very felt absence and some health scare changed the tone of voice of the poet José María valderrama Vega (Torredelcampo,1953),to the point of making his readers think that he would end up exiled into silence. But no, and recently resurrected he returns with what those who appreciate and admire him in equal measure expect from him: new book, although with his usual style.

-Three years after Fog Petals returns to the lyrical arena with Crystal Verses: Latest poems, José maría, or a bunch of texts kept in the drawer?

-There is everything, recent poems (which I publish with their original date) and new sonnets.One of the ‘old’ poems is about the Colce plan (the one that took Córdoba!, there I put the politicians ‘at ease’, everyone, I don’t care about the color) and the othre, a poem dedicated to a friend who died in 2021. The rest, all new.

-Thirty-six months are a lot, good and bad, joys and sadness…

-The death of my wife, among them.

-does that awareness of fragility inform the title of your most recent work?

-A little bit, yes, but more than anything I gave it that title as I like it. My way of writing is classic, with rhyme and measure; I was going to title it always verses but then it occurred to me Crystal Verses and I left it.

-Are the last events of your life present in the pages of the collection of poems? Is there much elegiac in it?

-I have written some poems to my wife, but they are not in this book. It’s all so recent that I didn’t want to touch on the subject. In the next one there will be things dedicated to her, without a doubt.

-Six books of poetry already: will those who approach his poems be filled with stylistic novelties, or does José María Valderrama, poet, persist?

-I continue in my line; There is a first part of sixty love sonnets (some in twelve syllables) and a second part of other poems, from chained tercets to Manriqueña sestinas, quatrains, quatrains…, everything.

-He was talking about the Colce plan, which he makes the curious and unusual protagonist of one of his poems, along with love. Thematically, what else does he offer in this new lyrical proposal?

-I have also touched on sexist violence. Oh, and the wake!

-How do you say? The wake?

-yes, yes [ríe]: At wakes they talk about everything except the dead person: they tell jokes, they talk about television s