POETRY

One Moment: Poems

by Luis Muñoz
Washington Square. May 2026. 128p. ISBN 9781668222386. pbk. $17. POETRY
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This translation of Spanish poet Muñoz’s seventh collection—only the second volume of his poetry (after 2015’s From Behind What Landscape) to be translated to English—presents a series of momentary epiphanies: brief, surreal flashes of perception. In Muñoz’s poetic universe, anything—rocks, beans, railings—can be animate, sentient, and constantly in a state of dreamlike transmutation. Even the poet’s memories seem to have lives of their own. A particular strength is the poet’s imagistic originality: “The sun in its attempt / to screw itself in / leaves semicircular notches / in the dough of the sky.” One might well believe that Muñoz wears the “special glasses for seeing souls” of which he writes.
VERDICT While some readers may find these poems to be opaque in their hallucinatory bravura, multiple readings work to their advantage. Adventurous audiences will readily welcome Muñoz’s expansive receptivity to the “light that only words can ignite.”
Reviewed by Fred Muratori , Mar 01, 2026
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