A River of time, flow of sorrows

Astrid Cabral and the poetics of expansion and retraction

Abstract

This article aims to highlight how Astrid Cabral’s poetry represents the inevitable melancholy of finite existence, the understanding that life is ultimately destined towards death. Cabral’s apparent simplicity, based on everyday objects and situations, reveals a unique philosophical complexity regarding the perception of finitude, melancholy, mourning, and solitude. It shows that memory, often, can be a catalytic space for maintaining sanity, as well as poetic creation, a possibility for overcoming pain. In order to prove this hypothesis, a reading path was established, starting with “Ponto de Cruz” (1979) and continuing through “Íntima Fuligem” (2017), highlighting poems that illustrate the idea. To support the analytical journey, authors such as Freud (1992); Henry Bergson (2006); Martin Heidegger (2004) will be used.