The Costa Rican poet Paola Valverde could be the only one who was not only interested in the world of boxing, but also wrote a book of poems, “The fifth corner of the quadrilateral” (Arlekín, 2013), which she plans to expand and reissue in Spain the house «Pencils of the Moon».
The affinity between literature and boxing is indisputable. The Spanish journalist José Luis Alvite used to say that “writing is boxing.” But poetry, with few exceptions, has forgotten the world of the twelve strings.
One of those oddities is “The Last Hook of Kid Failure”, poems by Pedro Flores, or the difficult personality of Arthur Cravan, Oscar Wilde’s nephew.
Women who write poetry about the world of boxing there will be, but they are very difficult to find. Paola Valverde is the exception.
«There is nothing more beautiful than being grateful. Poetry has to have that intention. You don’t have to portray the beautiful. I wrote a book that portrayed the night and its demons (“Bartender” by the Blue Dog publishing house, 2015) and this one that talks about love and boxing: all those internal struggles of how to leave the loves that kill but then never they die, “Valverde told Efe.
The Spanish writer Joaquín Pérez Azaustre writes in the prologue of «La quinta corner del cuadrilátero» that «crossing the poetic gloves with the writing of Paola Valverde is one of the most stimulating experiences of the latest poetry in Spanish» and that to enjoy this book of poems “one must tie one’s gloves, tuck into a defensive posture, and climb onto the mat.”
Paola Valverde says: «I also went through all those processes and now I write poetry with more light, with more colors, more green. Poetry that is medicine for the world.
«I like boxing. Life is a fight by assaults. I had to work for four years teaching poetry in a men’s prison here in Costa Rica. I was 17 years old and my mother accompanied me as she did not have an ID. I went to jail for poetry, since they called me because I had published a book as a teenager, “he said.
«I fell in love with that world. I knew absolutely nothing. Everything I believed in I had to throw it away. Poetry was something else: an apostolate and in my case more so, since I really liked working with people, with communities. I have seen very strong things that have made me grow a lot as a human being, “he said.
«I understood a lot about topics such as corruption or the adrenaline that one suffers when committing a crime and escaping from justice, because the boys told me about it. They were pushed aside by society since they were little. They were not given love, “he added.
«I come from the love of my parents, from the love of my husband (also the Honduran poet Dennis Ávila), I am happy and I try to return that optimism. But what if I had been raped, or had been in prostitution since I was 8 years old? ”He wondered.
“The ring is a street poem”, writes Paola in her book and tells: “Once they told me that boxing / was a sport for men / I looked at my angelic hands / my acrylic despicable nails”, to resolve: “Life se get up / and you insist on knocking her out ».
“There is always a hook that will pay off at the fifth corner,” writes Dennis Ávila. In this book lives the odd woman, Pavlov’s Bitch who loves without losing the north of boxing. When nobody sees him, he knows how to apply his elbows and he has that sick need to want to touch everything, even in photographs ».
“The fifth corner of the quadrilateral” will have its edition in Spain next May by the hand of Lapices de Luna, an independent publishing house that is committed to the book-object and illustrated away from the consumer edition, of “snack” literature.
The writer and journalist Juan Luis Tapia, director of the publishing house, told Efe that the book “will include new poems and versions of those already published in the Costa Rican edition. In addition, it will feature illustrations by the artist from Cádiz María Kings ».
«Paola does something different and we believe that she is unique when it comes to poetry, by including boxing as a territory for the metaphor of life, and with excellent quality. His poems are a ‘ko’ to the uniformity of the poetic panorama and a stroke of originality ”, said Tapia.
We return to Pérez Azaústre: «this is a book of poems that Budd Schulberg would have liked very much, after writing« The fall will be harder ». Or Sylvester Stallone, when he was writing the script for ‘Rocky’, inspired by Chuck Wepner, the man who endured a whole fight against Mohamed Ali.
“But even if we are readers and also spectators of this splendid poetic exercise – he continues – let’s stop talking. Or, as Paola Valverde writes: “High-hat gloves and go out to fight.” In other words, to read. EFE
Paola Valverde, the rare interference of a poet in the world of boxing
