I have spent the last week working on my collection of bilingual poems, which I have tentatively titled Santo sea el hueco/ Holy is the Void. The collection title is taken from one poem’s title. I am open to other sugestions. All of the poems were orginally written by me in Spanish. I enjoy writing in Spanish because I feel it makes my brain work in a different way. Some of my major influences have been the poets Juan Ramón Jiménez , Federico García Lorca, Pablo Neruda and Mario Benedetti. I translated some of my Spanish poems into English right after I wrote them. Others I never translated to English. A big part of my work this past week has been to translate all of those that had not been translated. One problem with translation is that there is often a rhyming scheme in the Spanish version that cannot be duplicated in English. I think something is always “lost in translation”. The other part of my recent work with these poems this past week has been collecting them and creating a table of contents for the collection. It’s a tedious, time-consuming process. Well, now it is done, and I have already submitted the 111-page collection to one publisher. I don’t have high hopes because they receive on average 200 submissions per year and only publish two books. It can take up to six months to hear back from them. Moderating hopes is a very necessary survival skill for an emerging writer trying to get published. Meanwhile, I will be looking for other publishers who want bilingual poetry collections. I am going to post the contents of the collection below. If there is a poem you would like to read, let me know, and I will share it with you. Or if you want me to curate for you a sampling of half dozen or so of these bilingual poems, let me know also. I would be happy to do it.
Santo sea el hueco ☀︎ Holy is the Void
✒︎ Poemas / Poems✒︎
by JK Miller
Contents
Amapolas alabastrinas 5
Alabaster poppies 6
Andando descalzo 7
Going Barefoot 8
Ardor (Spanish) 9
Ardor (English) 10
Clase de obediencia 11
Obedience Class 12
Cuando los guerrilleros comen 13
When the Guerillas Eat 14
El bosque después la nevada 15
The Forest After the Snowfall 16
El convento de madrigal/The Madrigal Convent 17
El mundo lo sabe Armando 18
The World Armando Knows 19
El Rescate 20
The Rescue 21
El viento desplomado 22
Collapsed Wind 23
En estos días 24
These Days 25
fallo/ I Fail 26
Apretados/ Pressed 27
Se lamenta la niebla/ The Mist Bemoans 28
Había buscado 29
I Had Searched 30
Hizo hincapié/ He Emphasized 31
La ciudad despierta/ The City Awakens 32
Los desaparecidos 34
The Disappeared 35
Mi abuelita es / My Grandmother Is 36
No hay diferencia/ There’s No Difference 37
Perro/ Dog 38
Vamos/ Let’s Go 39
Río de verdad 40
River of Truth 41
¿Te olvidaste? / Did You Forget? 42
Un yanqui 43
A Yankee 44
Una tormenta balbuciente 45
A Slurred Storm 46
El loro 47
Parrot 48
Maniobras 49
Maneuvers 50
Una muerte/ A Death 51
Balada del lago 52
Ballad of the Lake 53
Sueño del Carretero 54
Cart Man’s Dream 55
Comiendo una manzana en el baño 56
Eating an Apple in the Bathroom 57
Penetrante/ Penetrant 58
La canoa vieja 59
The Old Canoe 60
Fiesta del jardín 61
Garden Party 62
Me tumban 63
They Knock Me Down 64
Algunas bestias 65
Some Beasts 66
Mentiras/ Lies 67
Más vale 68
Better 69
Día de las gorditas 70
Gorditas Day 72
Color ausente 73
Absent Color 74
El perro atrapa el sol 75
The Dog Catches the Sun 77
Escapándose 79
Escaping 80
Pandemia española 81
Spanish Pandemic 82
King Kong Cumple 83
King Kong Has a Birthday 84
Amor no sé/ Love I Don’t Know 85
Borrachera a flote 86
Drunk Afloat 87
Ridícula 88
Sino así 89
Instead Like This 90
Soy el jardinero 91
I Am the Gardener 92
Atacama (Spanish) 93
Atacama (English) 95
Cartas a mi abuela 97 Letters to My Grandmother 98
Una vida 99
A Life 100
Fidelidad inalámbrica / Wireless Fidelity 101
La gota/ The Drop 102
Mapuche / Mapuche 103
Ganas/ Desire 104
Pesado hueso 105
Bone Heavy 106
Quiero conocer la naturaleza 107
I Want to Get to Know Nature 107
Santo sea el hueco 108
Holy is the Void 109
Sangre española/. Spanish Blood 110
Di algo lindo/ Say Something Nice 111
JK Miller 
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