No name is enough to say the fire

spirituality and poetry in José Tolentino Mendonça

Abstract

The article intends to explore the hypothesis that the poetry of José Tolentino Mendonça maintains a relationship with the universe of spirituality, or, more specifically, the idea that poetry itself can be understood as a spiritual exercise. In order to show this characteristic in José Tolentino Mendonça’s poetic work, we will follow this path: 1) we will try to offer a summarized contextual overview of his poetic work, highlighting, with the help of the critical reception, his relationship with religion; 2) we will try to show, especially based in a recent essay, how José Tolentino brings the poetic experience closer to spirituality; 3) and, finally, how this is clearly reflected in some poems. In this way, it is intended to show that the author’s poetry is built in a movement of appropriation of the Christian spiritual tradition in a “twisting” mode, as an effort to strip and recognize the fragility and potential of the poems to say the unspeakable.