Didn't vibe with Pessoa and his countless heteronyms as much as I'd hoped I would – more than slightly disappointed. Might just be a matter of taste (or laziness), but I really cannot stand the (seemingly convoluted) wordplay and literality (not to mention use of symbolism long overused). But what paradoxically redeems his poetry for me is that all the points I previously mentioned in criticism also protrude sorely to make me reconsider my taste for poetry in how it pushes literality and convention to the point of unconventionality. But it still remains that most of the poetry, although interestingly written, failed to provoke any desire to unravel them from the tangles of metaphysical wordplay and tired existentialism.

But in spite of all of this, there were definitely more than a few gems that resonated and, more crucially, allowed a glimpse of the "forms of expression... which, as it breaks the limits of definite thought... violate the rules of logical meaning." ( )

My first encounter with Pessoa was probably a photocopy in one of Hoa Nguyen's workshops, followed by the Exact Change edition of The Book of Disquiet. I acquired another collection on the way (somewhere in the San Antonio library...by which I mean my parents' house), but didn't really get into it.

It was poetry, so I was left (somewhat daftly) thinking that I liked Pessoa for his prose, and for bequeathing to future generations the concept of heteronyms. O, was I ever wrong! This edition is superb. Really this book requires three or four reviews, and I am not just being quippy.

Alberto Caeiro truly is the master! His concise philosophical and spiritual poems...I must use a cliche here, but which? Left a deep impression? Resonated strongly? It was like I had found a clear, pure and strongly flowing stream from which to irrigate my mind. I also found this book close on the heals of a Taoism kick, for what it's worth.

Ricardo Reis affected me as well. [more review perhaps to follow?:]

Alvaro de Campos - I had very little patience for his Whitmanesques with their dashes of Futurism.

I will return to him and his big breathe, tho'.

I think it's fascinating that none of Pessoa's personas were female. ( )

Though I did find many poems I enjoyed reading, I do not feel any larger affinity for his poesy. I eventually abandoned the book as their was nothing in it to keep my interest and nothing I felt worth more of my time. I am going to continue to look at Pessoa's work, and more of his poetry, but I am afraid he just does not buy me out. ( )

This book has been a stunning revelation for me. A poet who speaks directly into my soul, of whom I had known nothing up until a month ago.

There is the humor and poingancy when Fernando Pessoa writing as Alberto Caeiro in # 7 "... saw Jesus Christ come down to earth ... as a child again." And Poem 9 states "I'm a keeper of sheep." And we discover a simpilicty in life.

In the part where the poems are under the aegis of the title and author of the book, we have an exquisite poem on dreams, "Between my sleepiing and dreaming". I read this poem at a dreams conference and people were amazed at how he caught the journey of the dream life.

Writing as Àlvaro de Campos, he has this "I got of the train/ Amd said good-bye to the man I'd met." We get the feel of how it really is to take a long train trip and how are mind wanders over thoughts, lost images that come back, but in a meandering kind of way.

And there is a Magnificat, a play on words. A poem about his soul, not Mary's soul. Prehaps looking forward to his death.

Highly recommended. ( )