Carlos Castro

 I have been so busy, so I have been unable to post for a couple of months, but one poet I recently stumbled upon is Carlos Castro Saavedra. He was born 1924 in Medellín, Colombia and died at only 64 years of age. One of his most famous pieces is titled Amistad, meaning friendship in English. He describes friendship as "un mano que un otro mano apoya su fatiga, y siente que el cansancio se mitiga y el camino se vuelve más humano." In English, this most directly mean "a hand that another hand supports your fatigue, and you feel that the tiredness is mitigated and the path returns more human-like." I was curious as to what inspired Castro to write a poem about friendship, so I also found some things about his personal life. He is also commonly known as "the poet of peace." He attended the University of Antioquia and started writing and publishing poems at a very young age. His first book was published in 1946 and titled "Fusiles y Luceros" meaning Rifles and Lights. He gained a lot of inspiration from Pablo Neruda, who was a chilean poet and senator of the Republic of Chile and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1971 (2 years before his death.) Many claim the peace he portrays is in a very subtle manner: he recreates death but establishes hope for a better life. He not only stayed in the poetry realm, but also extended his writing into various forms, including novels, journalism, theater, and more.