This is a video documentation of the writing of the poem 'La Vida Nueva' in New York City's sky. For this 'performance-acción' or ‘poesía-acción’ (‘poetry-action’), five planes drew white smoke letters silhouetted over the blue sky. The poem was written in Spanish as form of recognition for all the minority groups all over the world. The photographs of this ‘poesía-acción’ are included in the book ‘Anteparaíso’ (‘Anteparadise,’ a bilingual edition, University of California Press, 1986).
Full text of the poem:
LA VIDA NUEVA
MI DIOS ES HAMBRE
MI DIOS ES NIEVE
MI DIOS ES PAMPA
MI DIOS ES NO
MI DIOS ES DESENGAÑO
MI DIOS ES CARROÑA
MI DIOS ES PARAÍSO
MI DIOS ES CHICANO
MI DIOS ES CÁNCER
MI DIOS ES VACÍO
MI DIOS ES HERIDA
MI DIOS ES GHETTO
MI DIOS ES DOLOR
MI DIOS ES MI AMOR DE DIOS
Biography
Raúl Zurita (Santiago de Chile, 1950) is a poet who, along with other artists, created the group CADA, Colectivo de Acciones de Arte, in 1979. CADA developed a large format or ‘monumental’ public art, characterized for being political and as a form of resistance against Pinochet’s dictatorship. Some of Zurita’s books are ‘Purgatorio’ (1979), ‘Anteparaíso’ (1982), ‘Canto a su amor desaparecido’ (1985), ‘La Vida Nueva’ (1994), ‘INRI’ (2003) y ‘Zurita’ (2011). He has traced poems in the sky (New York, 1982), and permanently in the Atacama desert (Chile, 1993). He has received the Guggenhaim and DAAD scholarships from Germany, and has obtained awards such as the Pablo Neruda and the National Literature Award in Chile, and the José Lezama Lima Award (Cuba, 2006), among others.
