Leopoldo María Panero

Leopoldo María Panero (16 June 1948 – 5 March 2014) was a Spanish poet, commonly placed in the Novísimos group. Panero is the archetype of a decadence as much cultivated as repudiated, but that decadence has not stopped him from being the first member of his generation in being incorporated to the classic Spanish editorial Cátedra, to have a splendid biography written by J. Benito Fernández (El contorno del abismo, Tusquets, 1999) and being included in the literary history, anthologies and academical programs.

Son of Leopoldo Panero (1909–1962), poet of suggestive voice, and brother of the poet Juan Luis Panero, the young Leopoldo María Panero, as well as so other many descendants of the supporters of the Franco regime, is fascinated by the radical left party. His anti-Franco militancy will constitute the first of his disasters and will cost him his first stay in prison.

His first experiences with drugs date back to those youth years too. From alcohol to heroin, to which he would dedicate an impressive collection of poems in 1992, none of them remains unknown to him. In the decade of the 70's he is admitted for the first time in a psychiatric hospital. Nevertheless, his constant internments do not prevent him from developing a copious bibliography not only as a poet, but as a translator, essayist and even narrator.

His various poetic releases appear regularly:

His narrative work includes:

He also cultivated the essay form:

In one or another way, all his pages, even his translations, are autobiographical. In fact, the keys to his work are self-contemplation and (self)destruction. Nevertheless, as Pere Gimferrer already pointed out in 1971, the theme of his poetry "is not the destruction of adolescence: it is its triumph, and the destruction and disintegration of the adult conscience with it". To liberate adolescence like emotional energy, creating an own mythology, not official, it is the assumed attitude by Panero from the very beginning.

He died 5 March 2014 at the age of 65.

Last River Together is a poetry book written by Spanish author Leopoldo María Panero. It is a good text in which to find all the characteristics of his poetry.

The first thing that can be seen in this poem are the culturalist elements that appear in a more or less explicit form:

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