The enormous task of putting together Luis Antonio de Villena’s poetic work, as rich as it is abundant, is an undertaking that has already been accomplished. The two volumes that collect him under the title of La Belleza impura present us a poet who is as classical as he is avant-garde, as much as innovative as he is devoted to tradition. All this halo of occasionally awakened beauty is hidden in others, who are always ready to feel the fullness and splendor of poetry. Impure Beauty also includes poems dropped or unpublished from her books. Also an example from the last book he was working on. Unconquerable time of splendor, blow out the flame of pleasure, confirm that “on the table, the spell is broken when the glass is broken”. Villena’s characters are a blast with their inner decay. That exuberance of love that expands in his poetry with its pompous reach. Untouchable beauty for a moment, as in the poem dedicated to Marilyn Monroe. Famous or anonymous lives that go out of their way for a pinch of passion are shipwrecked among human follies, and they know all too well the yellow that eventually captured the picture. The taste of the moment savored with an eerie hedonism, in which he senses a sense of belonging and loss: “And the death wish is always in the voice of roses.”
Literary motifs that inspire poems, quotes or references refer to a sublime culture that conveys a lively humanism to the reader; wisdom of explanatory clarity. The poet’s book knowledge adapts to the popular. Poems that awaken the senses with the scent of an oil painting or a trip. The ecstatic life of young bodies and the verses that remind and summarize it. Despite its utopian character, the best setting for the declarations of the ideal of beauty to become reality is at night: «And when the night comes / and the air is lit with the warm scent of jasmine / we will drink wine on the terrace ». Literary trade is a pleasure from infringement, it goes beyond the boundaries of the established: «I am a thief of reality / and I believe that all art is kidnapping. / That’s why it’s more important to live, / in the end. And one way or another, / the artist, sir, is a criminal». Adventure is the source and purpose of correction in the face of reality. The habitual and routine will be disrupted by the flow of pleasure, a savior scent that must be applied with care. The vulgar and the mediocre will be belittled by elegant and emphatic writing. The divine intensity of the Madrid writer’s poetry will turn into an elegiac intensity without losing its timbre and intensity. This nostalgia, which is forgotten in the second volume, which coincides with the last stage of the compilation, which is dominated by prose poems, is very striking. The roar is in seclusion, as if contemplating a tapestry in an old house. Fifty-one years of poetic work compiled by La Belleza impura demonstrates that there are poets with a subtle and personal work that deserves to be elevated to the category of artist. Luis Antonio de Villena’s poetry places us in a celebration of high flights.