Oliver de la Paz

Labyrinth 55

Listen to Oliver de la Paz read his piece:

The boy in the labyrinth knows that the error of the body is how greatly it perceives itself in the darkness. In the darkness all sounds swell in ever widening waves. As the boy sings he hears his own voice rebound against the curved surfaces of the cavern. In the wider parts, the hewn sides thicken the music. The waves so deep against the cavern’s hollow, the boy feels himself dashed against the rock face. And in the recesses, the minotaur’s song generates it’s own kinetic weight. All along the dark, the boy and the beast sing. Their mutual songs crash at the peak of their crests. Their heady trills thrash in their syncopated wills.

Oliver de la Paz is the author of three books of poetry: Names Above Houses, Furious Lullaby, and Requiem for the Orchard. He is the co-editor of A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poems and the co-chair of Kundiman.org's advisory board. He teaches at Western Washington University.