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Rating: 
Summary: A huge effort,about half on target
Review: Ernesto Cardenal is a tough call. former miinster of culture in the sandinista government,one time Trappist novice,former pacifist who took to the hills to fight the somoza government, then returned in triumph. Infamous for the incident at the Managua airport where the pope was caught on worlwide television wagging his finger at him,as an embarassed cardenal tried to kiss his ring[not a real highlight for either man,methinks}Nicaragua's most famous living poet,this is a series of cantos[think of pound and Neruda}It starts with, appropriately,the Big bang and ends, aslo appropriately with Omega. In between he quotes the tao{in the beginning was the Tao...}, Telihard de Chardin,thomas merton, Jesus as a communist revolutionary, honors Che` Guevera,quantum physics,micro-biology,the church fathers,glorifies Mao, Fidel and ,most things"left"> Some of this poetry is lyric, soaring, much of it pedantic,sounding like a tired old party hack. When he reaches for the cosmos,he fares so much better> Fr. cardenal has been savaged in print by mario Vargas LLosa,not for his poetry, but for his politics.Though it is impossible to seperate them, Fr. Cardenal comes off as quite sincere,and much of this shines through his poetry. An epochal effort,which though fallimng short{and its blindness to oppression by leftist goverments},this is a noble and quite good volume.
Rating: 
Summary: A cosmological love poem with Latin American politics.
Review: In 474 pages, Ernesto Cardenal weaves a stunning, interconnected parallel between the politics of Latin America, "astrophysics and love" (125). His voice and style at times reminds me of Pound in _The Cantos_, "(Everything I write is fragmentary/ a collection of quanta)" (Cardenal, 64), but Cardenal is more rooted and accessible. If you enjoy cosomology, quantum physics, love, and/or Latin American politcs, this book will please.
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