Category Archives: Ten

More Selections From “Ten”

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Although “Ten” was the second book I published, it was actually written before the first one that did come out, “Once”. Both titles were published by Rumbo Editorial – “Once” in 2009, and “Ten” in 2010.

When interviewed in the media, I am invariably asked why did I publish them out of order.

The simple answer is that “Ten” is a book that has no palliatives, whereas “Once” (owing to its free structure and multiple endings) is a book from which something positive can effectively be construed.

I think that the two compositions I have included below exemplify that. They come from the two final sections of the book, “Vicinity” and “Distance”. These turn “Ten” into “an exorcism and an outright damnation”, as I say in the preface.

I think these two compositions pay a clear debt to albums like “The Who By Numbers”, “All The Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes” and also an album I greatly like from an artist that (generally) I’m not  really that fond of: “Blood On The Tracks” by Bob Dylan.

So, without further preambles… “I Hurt You” and “You Lie”.

I Hurt You

I leave you because I don’t want to desert you
I decompose you because I love you intact
I say nothing because I love how you react –
I hurt you because I didn’t want to hurt you

I lead you because I don’t want to divert you
I tug at your heart because I love you unmoved
I love the absence of all you never removed –
I hurt you because I didn’t want to hurt you

And you longed for morn-like brilliance when I longed for the night
And I longed for occurrences when you longed for respite

I prod you because I don’t want to convert you
I motivate you because I love you inert
I love the deep silence whenever you assert –
I hurt you because I didn’t want to hurt you

I leave you because I don’t want to desert you
I decompose you because I love you intact
I say nothing because I love how you react –
I hurt you because I didn’t want to hurt you
Continue reading →

Javier Etchemendi’s Speech – Launch Event For The Book “Ten”

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(Hagan click aquí para leer este artículo en español)

This is the dissertation Uruguayan poet Javier Etchemendi delighted us with when “Ten” was officially released (Friday 19th of November, 2010).

Ten Emilio Perez Mguel

Numbers Also Go To Heaven

A closed universe vibrates in the writing of Emilio Pérez. A place that we can only stare at from the sidelines, knowing that there is an important part of him that will always remain out of reach.

The reader might ask himself, what good is a universe like that for? And that would be tantamount to asking what good is mystery for. The answer is obvious: for losing yourself in it, and coming out modified and strange, knowing something did happen and that such a something attracts us like danger and love do, in an unconscious way.

A mystery is not there to be elucidated. By its mere nature, a mystery is no longer a mystery when we fathom it out, when it becomes a certainty within a safe place. If the veil separating what we know from what we want to know becomes broken, then the mystery itself is broken for good.

A book is a door. I know that very well, for I am a guarder of the gates to the other world. And every once in a while, I let words pass from one side to the other. And since I know about words, I can honestly tell you that in “Ten” the author matters very little. Rather, it begins to matter very little once the door has been opened. Some might say, “But it is a book written in English”. And I can reply: do kisses, tears, desperation and redemption have a language? Emilio sets down his titles like glowing stones that we can follow to the other shore, where the golden pot can be found. “Nobody Feels All The Time”, “The Dark Side Of The Road”, “Broken”, “Cry”, “After The Fire The Fire”. Continue reading →

Disertación de Javier Etchemendi – Presentación Del Libro “Ten”

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Esta es la brillante disertación que nos obsequió Javier Etchemendi en la presentación de “Ten”, el viernes 19 de noviembre de 2010.

Ten Emilio Perez Mguel

Los Números También Van Al Cielo

En la escritura de Emilio Pérez Miguel vibra un universo clausurado. Un lugar que sólo podemos atisbar subrepticios, sabedores, además, que una parte importante de él quedará permanentemente fuera de nuestro alcance.

El lector podrá preguntarse ¿para qué sirve un universo así? Y sería lo mismo que preguntar para qué sirve el Misterio. Y la respuesta no se hace esperar: para frecuentarlo y salir de él modificados, raros, seguros de que algo pasó y que ese algo nos atrae como nos atrae el peligro o el amor, de una manera inconciente.

El misterio no existe para ser develado, su naturaleza se rompe apenas lo intuimos, entonces deviene en certeza, en seguridad y en lugar conocido y se habrá roto el velo que nos separa de aquello que ciertamente no deseamos saber.

Un libro es una puerta, yo lo sé bien pues soy portero del trasmundo y dejo pasar cada tanto palabras de un lado para el otro. Y  como sé de palabras estoy en condiciones de decirles que aquí el autor casi no importa, o que dejará de importar una vez que la puerta sea abierta. Alguien podrá decir “pero si es un libro escrito en inglés” y yo puedo contestar ¿acaso los besos, las lágrimas, la desesperación y la redención tienen idioma? Emilio dispone sus títulos como piedras incandescentes que podemos seguir como trashumantes hacia la olla con el oro detrás del arco iris: nadie siente todo el tiempo, el lado oscuro del camino, quebrado, llorar, después del fuego el fuego. Continue reading →

A Couple More Poems From “Ten”

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Today I’d like to share a couple more poems from “Ten” with you. As I am sure you know, “Ten” is the book that I have just issued with the support of my long-standing friends from Rumbo Editorial.

The prequel to “Once“, “Ten” is split in six different parts that make up a single chapter. The poems I have included below come from the central part of the book. This is named “The Giver And Taker Of Life”, and it takes the shape of a passing day that ends up becoming a song.

I hope you like them! As usual, I look forwards to your every comment!

Flugelhorns

I count every single step from the end
Towards the outskirts of the beginning
You were the battle never worth winning
And the episode no-one should append –
Now the juxtaposition is thinning

Flugelhorns playing
Across an empty building, down an empty street
Amid a wasted dream, through nighttimes incomplete
Flugelhorns straying
Like the truth I loathe but I cling to nonetheless
Within my spent heart, like the thoughts I don’t possess
Like a guilty antiphon –
Why did you leave me alone?

I count every single mile from the end
Towards the remnants of the commencement
You were my one chance, my one investment
And the bitterest share and dividend –
Now you transcend my deepest resentment

Flugelhorns playing
Across an empty building, down an empty street
Amid a wasted dream, through nighttimes incomplete
Flugelhorns straying
Like the truth I loathe but I cling to nonetheless
Within my spent heart, like the thoughts I don’t possess
Like a guilty antiphon –
Why did you leave me alone?

Flugelhorns baying
Across an empty effect, down an empty cause
Amid a wasted dream, through immaculate flaws
Flugelhorns slaying
Like the immanence I refuse but I reckon
Within my spent heart, like the hopes I won’t beckon
Like the love I never shone –
Why did I leave you alone? Continue reading →

“Ten” Was Published Yesterday

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"Ten" Is The Prequel To "Once". Both Books Have Been Published By Rumbo Editorial.

Yesterday I published my second book of lyric poetry. The launch event was a very touching moment, with lots of old and new friend in attendance along with my family and people that I did not know until yesterday, and who attended the event on strength of the announcements that were made on local radio.

The book is named “Ten”, and it is the prequel to “Once”, the one I published last year. The books (which have been published by Rumbo Editorial) are interconnected in many senses. For example, the pictures you can see on “Ten” are the ones that illustrate “Once”, and vice versa.

ten once emilio perez miguel

"Ten" & "Once" Side To Side.

My good friends Marcelo Otamendi, Dinorah Santomauro, Erika Mayssa Bassi and Mario Paz played a selection of lyrics from “Once”, along with their very own compositions.

I thank everybody for being there in such an important day. Now, the day after the event, the one phrase that defines how I feel is the one sung by Ben Lee on his song “Love Me Like The World Is Ending”:

It is the first day of the future…

Thanks, everybody.

Some Poems From “Ten”

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My Second Book Of Lyric Poetry, “Ten” Is Being Released One Year To The Date In Which I Published “Once”.

My Second Book Of Lyric Poetry, “Ten” Is Being Released One Year To The Date In Which I Published “Once”.

Tomorrow I am releasing my second book of lyric poetry. It is named “Ten”, and it is entirely in English.

It is the companion book to “Once”, the book I published around this time last year. The events described in “Ten” take place one year before the ones set down in “Once”.

Expect plenty more posts about these two books. In the meantime, I would like to share some poems from “Ten” with you.

Enjoy!

Dance Across The Moonlight

There’s a cessation in my heart I seem to eternize
And there’s an eternity I can never realize
And I move across the silence that keeps me company
And you dance across the moonlight arisen in the sea

And I close my eyes to see you

There’s a question in my heart I seem to perpetuate
And there’s a perpetuation I can never abate
And I move across the silence winged by celerity
And you dance across the moonlight arisen in the sea

And I close my eyes to see you

There’s a disunity in my heart I seem to prolong
And there’s a prolongation I can never bear along
And I move across the silence that binds you close to me
And you dance across the moonlight arisen in the sea

And I close my eyes to see you

Here

Chasing meretricious rainbows I came in here
Knowing there was no promise to reclaim in here
Embosoming the shame in here
Within my devotion
Just like an emotion

That I never bothered to restrain or impede
And what you never expressed was all I would heed

Chasing deleterious dreams I strolled in here
Knowing I would regret it all I bowled in here
Treasuring the fool’s gold in here
Reinforced by the thrill
Of pleonasms shrill

That I never bothered to restrain or impede
And what you never expressed was all I would heed

And I simply thought of you without thinking twice
And what you never gave was all that would suffice Continue reading →