There is a hand in the shadow

Devoid of clemency

Expelled from the empire of caresses

It does not know the trade

Of building closeness or prayers.

Mariela Cordero, a renowned and award-winning poetess from Venezuela, shares her poetry

Mariela Cordero. Born in Valencia, Venezuela (1985) is a lawyer, poet, writer, translator and visual artist. Her poetry has been published in several international anthologies. She has received some distinctions, among them: Third Alejandra Pizarnik Argentina Poetry Prize (2014). First Prize of the II Iberoamerican Poetry Contest Euler Granda, Ecuador (2015). Second Prize of Poetry Concorso Letterario Internazionale Bilingüe Tracceperlameta Edizioni, Italy (2015) Micropoems in Spanish Award in the III TRANSPalabr@RTE contest (2015). First Place in the International Poetry Contest #AniversarioPoetasHispanos mention literary quality, Spain (2016). Finalist Aco Karamanow International Poetry Prize, Macedonia (2022).César Vallejo World Prize for Literary Excellence (2023).  Sahitto International Award for Literary Excellence (2023). Third Prize in the Il Meleto Competition of Guido Gozzano, Italia (2024). She has published the following books of poetry: El cuerpo de la duda Editorial Publicarte, Caracas, Venezuela (2013) Transfigurar es un país que amas Editorial Dos Islas Miami, United States (2020). La larga noche de las jaurías Editorial Nautilus, Spain (2023). She has participated in several international literary meetings and festivals, among them: The Princeton Festival (United States), 2023 Kaohsiung World Poetry Festival (Taiwan), International Festival Poesía Xochimilco (Mexico) Her poems have been translated into Hindi, Czech,  Estonian, Serbian, Shona, Uzbek, Romanian, Macedonian,Korean, Hebrew, Bengali, English, Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Polish.Currently coordinates the sections #VenezuelanPoetry and #WorldPoets in the Poetry Magazine Poémame (Spain). Editorial Advisor of the magazine of the Institute of Symbology (South Korea).

THE HAND IN THE SHADOW

 There is a hand in the shadow

Devoid of clemency

Expelled from the empire of caresses

It does not know the trade

Of building closeness or prayers.

 

This hand

Bursts 

With the flutter of slaughter, 

Its movements foul

The waves

Of the assaulted body.

It tears with precision

The submissive skin,   

Baptizes the wound

And draws a line 

With his steel finger.

Only 

Wants to give you

The scar

***

SURRENDER

Surrender 

Like a story that melts

Expose 

The wrinkle and the scar

To reveal also

The strong smile of the body

To give to drink the cloudy water of the heart.

Surrender  

 

Barefoot

With no other attire than the candle

Of the indomitable eyes,

 

Pure

As one who surrenders

To death.

***

THE SENSED FEATURES

All the faces go astray 

On the journey, 

The hungry memory

Aspires to retain them

But the traces and signs

Are diluted in the tide of bewilderment.

In the crowd blooms

Immediate

Like a blow

A unique face

 

Unknown

That imposes itself

And unsettles you

Until you are pierced

By the fulminating joy 

Of ending the search.  

The beloved face

Gathers

 All the sensed features

***

THE INSCRUTABLE EYES

The inscrutable eyes 

That hide

Within galloping cities of steel, 

Are behind 

Thousands of other sleepwalking eyes. 

They are indomitable narcotics

That mutilate the helplessness

Soothe the screams

And pour out caresses.

When they emerge

 They take you by assault.

You know 

That you will die

 Invoking them.

***

ISLAND

 Far away,

Forged of oblivion

Besieged

By hungry waters

 

Lonely 

Hot sand.

 An island

 That calcines resembles your 

 Mouth.

***

THE FIRST

I am the first

I’m at the beginning

Of time

In the middle of the gloom

In the particle

Of this sunset

And to the edge

Of the collapse.

I am all

And none.

***

NAME

There is a name that I drink

Half solar alcohol, half secret water

There’s a name that I scream

 Mixed in the bustle of the others

There is a name that I caress

Piece of forest

Warm and persistent

There is a name

River, sweet arrow and sweat.

A name

That devours

My name.

***

FRAGILE AS THE ABSOLUTE

Fragile as

The absolute

In this way

Emerges

The caress

***

THE PACKS

When you first stepped

The soil of the capsizing kingdom

You forgot

Your inherited signs.

You didn’t raise your eyes again

To conjure the sky

And filled with flesh and earth

You eluded the inapprehensible map

Of the stars

Always in exodus.

The old religion was demolished

And never heard again

The incessant breathing

Of your morals

Without cracks.

You multiplied

In the feast

Of cuts and tears.

You followed the course of the packs.

Now

You have no name.

***

APPRENTICE

For each day

A baptism of fire

Avid trials

And unbreathable aftermath.

 

You burn

In the perpetual lesson

And in unrelenting dread.

You fear

That in the other

Territory

You will remain

Apprentice.

_____________________

Coordinated by Angela Kosta Executive Director of MIRIADE Magazine, Academic, journalist, writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator, promoter