Josely Vianna Baptista

I had to rush over here and mention Josely Vianna Baptista from Brazil, who was featured in the Aufgabe no. 6 'Brazilian poetry in translation' series here from Litmus Press and translated by Chris Daniels. Her poem "Antônio de Gouveia, cleric in Pernambuco (circa 1570)" is incredible--it's like a word version of the film Black Orpheus, which is about Carnival in Brazil.

Baptista has a great style, a type of wild, high voltage Borges kind of imagery. Things are always happening, and you're racing to keep up. That's the kind of energetic poetry I like--no bland, nothingness here. Here's an excerpt from the beginning:

gold’s priest, necromancer 

well versed in magic and mine, 

came to Brazil in banishment, 

celebrated strange masses, 

murdered imprisoned natives, 

stole young women from their loves

in an attempted defense 

of his far-flung exploits 

he drafted with depraved fist 

a testimonial to customs absurd 

on this other side of the world

[...]

Her "Pablo Vera" is excellent as well, here's a few lines from the end:
[...]

with a mask all smoke 

and a child’s voice 

(a god speaks through him) 

recalls a future 

of jubilo and fright