KNOT Magazine
Fall Issue 2022
Luis Raul Calvo
Translated from Spanish
by Flavia Cosma
Gauguin and I
It was either him or me, there was no other way.
That's why on that day of the knife,
facing Gauguin who was fleeing in terror
from the house
something in me broke forever.
Something led me to damage my own organs
and offer them as a gift
to my inner enemy, perhaps? To the one whom I watched over so much
in those hours, minutes and seconds of my life,
pinning for a long awaited
communion between artists?
I could never reconstitute myself, father,
As I was saying, something in me broke
eternally, and again and again, as before,
fainting in the solitude of this filthy
crazed man that I became, I admit that I have failed you.
Questions of Filial Love
to my mother
There is so much chill, so much accumulated overwhelm
that crosses the desire in these bloody hours
of a defeated city, that I return to you mom
to hide between your white skirts
and protect myself from the dark light that clouds our reason
and senses.
I return because yes, I need to seek refuge in your
sweet autumn hands, as in those old days
when another chill ran through my veins and your
love as always, redeemed everything.
The long road to school, the smell of hot bread
gushing from the depts of the old
bakery, the desired trips in the Auburn car, with
dad and Liliana, on those hot nights of
summer and the walls of our house on Pujol street,
that will keep forever
your eternal scent of mother.
Snapshot
This wandering woman who travels and travels,
recovers her innocence in every gesture;
she sways on that bed with her agile and beautiful presence
overflowing with pleasure.
In that instant when everything is everything and nothing is nothing
she remembers the terror and the atrocious scenes
recorded on her retina, from those undesirable years.
Maybe that's why the man who is by her side today
when their bodies merge into one
kisses passionately the entire surface of her still wonderful figure
and embraces her in this white and peaceful room,
to forget together
those times of misfortune.
In a hotel room
In a hotel room, a man and a woman
sealed a pact of biblical images,
drank the wine of Eden and surrendered to the carnal passions of desire.
She carried in her story, fragments of aqueous pains,
a slow pilgrimage through the rocky grottoes of oblivion,
the fake voice of clemency.
He undressed her and found in those gestures of forbidden
temptations, a crude tale of pleasure,
caressed her big breasts and penetrated slowly
her intimate and orphaned being.
She moaned until she died.
Two Brothers
Once upon a time there was a state of mind
that safely sheltered two brothers
from that fragile and rocky union, without vain pretensions,
a point in history was marked
one created a new world of phantasmagorical visions,
which the rest of the mortals didn’t seem to see,
the other, struggling with no let up against defeat,
managed to hold alive
the thin thread of love.
There was once a state of mind that
sheltered two brothers,
a state capable of circumventing vicissitudes and virulence
thrown on their path by destiny.
From that labile bond held in the territory of the spirit
a legend was born.
Both unknowingly crossed over into the immortality
of dreams.
Luis Raúl Calvo: Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1955. Poet, essayist, aphorist, translator, singer-songwriter. Has a degree in Psychology. He has published thirteen books of poetry to date. He has received various distinctions and literary recognitions. His poems have been translated into English, French, Portuguese, Romanian, Italian, Bengali, Albanian, Chinese-Mandarin.
Recorded to date three musical albums, the last "Una cajita llena de risas", July 2021, songs for children. Luis Raúl Calvo is a great cultural promoter. He is the Director of the Cultural Project "Generacion Abierta", that includes a Radio weekly Program, a fine Magazine of Literature and Arts and a monthly live Literary Workshop, project that celebrated recently its 32 years of existence.
Flavia Cosma is a Canadian writer, poet and translator. She is also a professional photographer and producer, director and screenwriter for television documentary films.
Flavia has published poetry, prose, children's literature and travel memoirs. Her books are translated in many countries and languages. Her poetic work is the object of study at prestigious universities in Canada and the United States. A recipient of several international literary awards, Flavia Cosma is the director of the International Writers’ and Artists’ Residence, Val-David, Quebec, Canada and of the Biannual Writers’ and Artists’ International Festival at Val-David, QC, Canada.