“LER PELO NÃO”

Paulo Leminski as a poets’ reader

Abstract

Paulo Leminski founded his poetic diction on the reading he made of other poets, thus choosing his own tradition. It is possible to find in his work the many voices that influenced his expression. This reading procedure is not only present in Leminski’s poetry, but also in the essays, in which he reads and
critically analyses the works and the inventive practice of some writers. Thus, he organized a book that gathers only essays dedicated to some authors, entitled Anseios crípticos 2. However, it is worth pointing out that the link with the tradition you have chosen for yourself, especially the concretist, is not always peaceful, but marked by tension, since this reading is sometimes carried out by the “no” bias. This is because, although he admired his predecessors, Leminski did not wish to follow the path outlined by them, since he wanted to institute his own style. To do so, he sought in this tradition to confirm his own values and thus conquer his place before the poetic canon that he chose for himself. Based on such arguments, this work aims to analyze the way Leminski read his peers, observing, mainly, the tension present in this dialogue, for example, that occurs withconcretism. In this way, we will proceed with the analysis of poems, critical essays and letters dealing with poets and traditions with which Leminski had dialogue.