Love Poems by Emilio Adolfo Westphalen

In 1991 I received a special present for my birthday in Lima. It was a book given to me by Emilio Westphalen of poems he wrote in the 30's when he was young. The originals were lost for many years. In a lecture in 1974 he mentioned these poems as the lost erotic poems of the 30's. From 1935 to 1978 Emilio hardly wrote or published any poems. Afterwards he became prolific. Years later, in 1987, Andre Coyné, who had published a few of them in a Spanish magazine, while organizing his papers, found a portfolio and inside discovered the series "Cuál Es La Risa" - the los erotic poems. In Barcelone in 1989, Editorial Auqui published 250 samples. That is the book I received for my birthday!

..... More years have gone by, I moved to New York and started learning calligraphy. I became interested in books. While visiting the Museum in Philadelphia in 1996, I saw a Thai book-a treaty on science with calligraphy in the middle and illustrations on the sides. I decided to do a book with the same format, like a folded scroll painted on both sides. For the text I was interested in authors with whom I was familiar and whose work had been invented when they were young. It was my creative joy to choose new work to astound and invigorate my own. The poems in "Cuál Es La Risa" have that quality. They are vital, passionate and offer great rewards.