Book, Duty: poems[LS]

Armando Freitas Filho debuted as a book in 1963. With Dever, he celebrates 50 years of career and makes it clear why he is one of the greatest poets working in the country. In the first part, “Suite”, the author focuses on “houses, clothes, furniture, etc.”, everyday objects that would initially have no poetic echo, if they were not, as the author states, “arranged in such a way that they serve for aesthetic purposes.” The second, “Anexo”, is already on the street, it is “journalistic”, but without giving up the transfiguring literary work, giving an account of the events then and now, that have affected the poet. The third, “Numeral”, which has been the coda of Armando's books since 2003, continues to review his poetics, always subject to future corrections. It is worth noting his ability to mix intimate poems, about love and family life, with poems that speak to contemporary news, such as the Candelária massacre and the goalkeeper Bruno, and also dialogue with the newest Brazilian poetry, as in the poem made from the latest book by Angélica Freitas, A uterus is the size of a fist. In one of the poems in the book, the author traces a brief genealogy of Brazilian literature, proposing a link between Machado de Assis, Graciliano Ramos, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Antonio Candido and João Cabral de Melo Neto. Armando Freitas Filho is undoubtedly an heir to this master line of Brazilian literature.