Poem 48 In Solidarity: Sem Título

Márcio-André

diante da grandeza do universo

nos contentamos em ser meia-coisa

estamos produzindo

tanta unha para o sec. xxi

ninguém calculou

o impacto das nuvens

sobre crânios sem chapéus

concluiu-se apenas que

os fumantes tem duas almas

ou ao menos desculpa para ir ao ar livre

os comerciais da free

definiram afinal o que é arte

e o que poderia ser

deixamos que outros decidam

nada resta por duvidar

acreditamos em tudo o que

não tem mistério:

sobrou somente a busca incansável por atlântida

essas pedras submarinas

empilhadas sob outra história

atlântida nunca esteve no passado

tão somente no futuro

o passado – sabe-se –

é daqueles que o enxergam primeiro

e o caminho dos pedestres

tem outro traçado que o dos carros

Márcio-André

Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1978. Writer, sound and visual artist. Author of four books of poetry and essays, he has collaborated with newspapers including O Globo, Jornal do Brasil, O Estado de Minas and with numerous brazilian and international magazines. His works have been translated into eight languages. He also has poems published in the anthologies Poetas do Mundo, O que é poesia?, Todo começo é involuntário – a poesia brasileira no início do Sec. 21, Poétes Brèsiliens d´aujourd´hui, 24 letras por segundo, among others. His poetry inspired the short film “The Gospel according to the Sea”, 2011, directed by Iva Kvasnicka.

He has taught advanced courses in creative writing and sound poetry at the University of Coimbra and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. As a translator, he has published texts of Gherasim Luca, Gilles Yvain, Serge Pey, Mathieu Bénézet, Hagiwara Sakutaro and Forrest Gander. In 2008, he received the National Library Foundation Scholarship, for the book of essays Pética das Casas (Poetics of Houses) and in 2009, was resident poet in Monsanto, Portugal. He is also one editor with Confraria do Vento (Brasil/ Portugal) and curator of Cidade aTravessa, performative and literary event that takes place in Lisbon, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

An experimental poet, with works in the area of sound and visual poetry, installation and performance, M-A has performed in the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Ukraine, Hungary, Spain, Netherlands, Argentina, Peru, Canada and several cities in Brazil, sharing the stage with artists such as Bruce Andrews, Stephen Rodefer and Ana Gesto. He has read in the festivals Poetry International Festival Rotterdam, Silêncio, Balada Literária, Encontros de Interrogação, International Meeting of Poets in Coimbra, Fórum das Letras, Marché de la Poésie, Poéticas plurales, Festival Internacional de Poesía de Córdoba to name a few.

Along with Maria Bethania, Edu Lobo and Zeca Baleiro, he read poems in the documentary and video installation Há muitas noites na noite, by Silvio Tendler. Thanks to his Radioactive-Poetic Conference (2007) in the ghost town of Chernobyl, in Ukraine, he became “the first radioactive poet in the world.”

Márcio-André lives in Santiago de Compostela, Spain