Very Drunk / Borracho: Love Poems & Other Acts of Madness / Poemas de Amor y Otros Actos de Locura: Translations

This bilingual collection of poems by Jesús Papoleto Meléndez reads as a poetic autobiography of a hopeless romantic. Borracho invites us to find the essence of a man’s character laid bare in the foibles of his desire and passionate pursuit of love. Spanning the poet’s fifty-year career, this volume of fifty love poems takes us on a journey through the poet’s winding paths of love and life. Beginning with poems dedicated to his mother and father, the cascading style of Meléndez’s verse strings together a series of vignettes within a flowing narrative of the poet’s life in love. They offer lyrical glimpses into the struggle to find love and into a life lived in deep connection, and they lead us to bittersweet moments in the company of an aging man. The poems spring from times of exhilarating joy, sinking darkness, and painful absence, taking us on a journey through love’s highs and lows.