The Infinite Loop / Lazo Infinito, El

A wonderful, bilingual collection from the latest winner of the Paz Prize for Poetry, granted by the National Poetry Series, that explores the interconnection between pain, love, and hope.

Oneyda González's astounding winning entry of the Paz Prize for Poetry is a searching and yearning triumph of hope over pain—through love. It is no small coincidence that González and Paz are linked in this publication, since the spiritual experience the latter lived and observed in India have accompanied González for many years, through her own curious search of the invisible that culminated in The Infinite Loop / El Lazo Infinito.

In this bilingual collection, pain and love combine in a self-annihilating matter-against-energy reaction that eventually amounts to a dynamic and deliberate formula for understanding hope. The Infinite Loop exists in the most fiery flames of friction where the personal will to survive—to hope to survive—is forged.

González's book was selected by judge Lourdes Vázquez, who says of his selection: "There was strong competition, but El lazo infinito stands out for its unique inner depth. In a kind of introspective scenario—a movie theater—a poem begins the rite and as a voice, an 'I' (that personal identity) in continuous dialogue with her inner voice. That never-ending reflection creates a universe of revelations, desires, and knowledge, and its course diverge, intermingle, and grow like the stems of a plant."