A Sun Behind Us / Un Sol Caído Avanza

MAR泝 AUXILIADORA 簇VAREZ'S winning entry of the Paz Prize for Poetry is in many ways a loving memoriam to her father, Oswaldo 翼varez Rojas, and a celebration of the long embrace that still warms Mar燰, her seven siblings, and their mother. Her poems explore sunlight as a metaphor for her father, holding her up from behind, illuminating her path forward, and also shining a light on memory, igniting nostalgia, and overcoming the grief of loss.

Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, "Believe me, everything depends on this: to have had, once in your life, a sacred spring that fills the heart with so much light that it is enough to transfigure all coming days." In A Sun Behind Us, the poet's father is the sacred spring. "My father," writes 翼varez, "is in all my writing, and his writing is in all my family, keeping us standing tall even after his sudden departure, following a brief illness. His positive influence is still the sun behind our back, projected beyond our horizon. The potent lighthouse in our life as nomads. Illuminated by the same ray of light, the eight children together form a compact stained-glass window, now dividing the fifty-two weeks of the year among ourselves, each taking our turn in caring for our mother beside the Florida sea, where she still smiles each morning. Even those who live far away travel without hesitation to fulfill a promise whispered along with our father's last breath."

翼varez's book was selected for the Paz Prize for Poetry by the Cuban poet Germ嫕 Guerra.