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Octavio Paz. Ladera este. 1969. 161 pp.

Poems that Paz wrote in India, with an orientalist flavor. I hate to say it, but this is generally weak writing, with all of Paz's mannerisms on display. The homage to John Cage is well-intentioned, but very secondary, much like his poem for Joseph Cornell in Vuelta. Of the canonical Latin Americans of the 20th century--Vallejo, Neruda, Borges, Paz, Lezama--Paz is probably the weakest poet, the one who is most willful in forcing poems into existence that don't really need to exist. He is talented but very thin. (Piedra de sol is solid, though.) Some of his poetry works well in the classroom because it is so obvious.