Description
TEMPLE
Book Summary
In Temple, the fourth poetry collection by Alan Smith Soto, the reader enters a space where the sacred persists even after the absence of the gods. Nature, as the backbone of the work, becomes the setting and the essence of being. Through a gaze that traverses Madrid, Boston, San José, and Turrialba, the poet weaves an emotional map populated by streets, meadows, bakeries, and wayfarers. This book offers a lyrical reflection on helplessness and longing, where the everyday and the broken are illuminated with a contained and profound beauty.
What is it about?
Starting from the epigraph by Schiller, paraphrased by Menéndez Pelayo—"The temple remains sacred when the gods have gone"—the author constructs a collection that probes the persistence of the sacred in a world stripped of divinities. Nature is not a mere backdrop, but the place of experience, the occasion for an encounter with oneself and with others. The verses traverse real and symbolic geographies: from the bustling Calle del Humilladero in Madrid to the landscapes of Costa Rica, passing through Boston. In that transit, diverse figures appear—the evicted, the happy, the broken, murderers and the murdered, a harlequin, a cloud, a kitten—who populate the temple with their sacred helplessness. The work is sustained by a constant tension between longing (roots, affection) and absence, revealing that the true temple is life itself in its fragility and beauty.
Main Themes
- The persistence of the sacred in the absence of the divine.
- Nature as a space of identity and belonging.
- Helplessness and human fragility as shared experiences.
- Geographic and emotional travel between cities (Madrid, Boston, San José, Turrialba).
- The poetry of the everyday: streets, bakeries, wayfarers, and small beings.
Who is it recommended for?
This book is aimed at readers of contemporary poetry who seek a lyrical voice capable of finding beauty in the stripped-down and meaning in the ephemeral. It is ideal for those who appreciate poetry that moves between the intimate and the universal, with roots in nature and an attentive eye for the details of urban and rural life. It will also be of interest to those who follow the work of Alan Smith Soto or who explore current Hispanic American poetry with an existential and sensory focus.
What this book contributes
- A poetic experience that reconciles the reader with the idea that the sacred dwells in the everyday and the vulnerable.
- A lyrical journey through real and emotional landscapes that invites reflection on belonging and displacement.
- A perspective that dignifies marginalized characters and small moments, granting them a place in the temple of poetry.
- A work that, within the brevity of its 80 pages, offers a symbolic and emotional density that lingers after reading.
Technical Specifications
- Author: Alan Smith Soto
- Publisher: Huerga y Fierro Editores
- Language: Spanish
- Topic: Poetry by individual poets
- Series: Poetry
- Binding: Paperback
- Publication Date: October 2024
- Number of pages: 80
- Weight: 135 g
Editorial Review
Temple presents itself as a coherent work within Alan Smith Soto's trajectory, consolidating his interest in nature and helplessness as lyrical drivers. The proposal stands out for its ability to fuse the geographic with the emotional, offering the reader a poetry collection that is accessible in its language yet profound in its implications. The paperback edition and its contained length make it a manageable and suggestive read, ideal for those who seek poetry that dialogues with lived experience without renouncing philosophical reflection. It is a solid recommendation for lovers of contemporary lyric poetry with a sensitivity toward the essential and the human.