THE UNFINISHED BREATH Vol. One

Iván Argüelles is clearly one of the most unique and authentic poets working in English today, and I dare say one of the most authentic in any language. His uniquely identifiable voice runs throughout his work, but each of his individual books and poems has its own unique timbre, point of view, its own movement, tone, thematic center. Each work is unique. The nature of his engagement over the past 50 years or so has been far more than a desire to write "poetry", rather, poetry is the air he breathes to embody a complex psychic need, the air he needs to be in the life form and time he occupies. When you consider Iván Argüelles' work, you are not looking at a literary career, but at something basic about the being of living things in general. Proof of this is that the intense late poems in this book (Vol. One written Oct.21, 2021 to May 1, 2022) are stronger than ever. His work is one of our greatest treasures. -John M. Bennett