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*Milán. Antología poética. Mexico: Aldus, 1997. 113 pp.

A selection of Milán's earlier work. There are some very good poems from books I haven't yet read in their entirety. I'm almost getting to understand what his work is all about.

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*Milán. Acción que en un momento creí de gracia. Tarragona: Igitur, 2005.

There was always something unsatisfactory about MIlán's poetry for me, but the more I read the more I'm able to selectively filter that out. I think it was that the poems never ended how I wanted them to; I couldn't quite understand their structure. Now, I'm thinking I was wrong. Or maybe it's that he writes a lot of poems and I was suspicious of that. I couldn't figure out which ones were meant to be the best ones.

Anyway, this is one of his best books. You have to love the title too: "An action that at one time I thought was [an action] of grace."

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*Milán. Ganas de decir. Montevideo: Linardi y Rissi, 2004. 91 pp.

Here is Milán at his most expansive and optimistic.

No más luto o duelo:
el absoluto absuelto
abre su puño, suelta las aves.

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*Milán. Circa 1994. Mexico: Fundación Nacional Para la Cultura y las Artes, 1996. 47 pp.

Here we see Milán develop his more stream-of-consciousness, almost rambling style. The word play still is here, but it's at the service of an exploration of his own ideas.

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*Milán. Al margen del margen (antología 1975-1991).. Mexico: Universidad autónoma 1991. 37 pp.

A selection of Milán's earlier poetry, with a strong Octavio Paz influence at the beginning. A lot of word play.

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Back to my series 9,000 Books of Poetry!

*Eduardo Milán. Cosas claras. Guadalajara: filodecabellos, 1992. 39 pp.

This is a short, unitary, and beautiful book by Uruguayan poet Milán. There's a little less of the self-consciousness about writing that makes Milán's poetry so distinctive. I'm kind of lucky to be reading it because there are only 100 copies and my library happens to have it.