Octavio Paz and the Labyrinth

Octavio Paz was born in 1914 in Mexico City and began writing at an early age. His grandfather had an extensive library and was an active political journalist which passed down to Octavio Paz’s father. Octavio also founded the journal Taller featuring emergent writers. He is well known for his work The Labyrinth of Solitude. This book was his study of the Mexican Identity. He is known as an essayist and poet and while he passed away in 1998, his writing is as important today as it was while he was alive.
The following poem comes from a book of his poems titled: The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz 1957 – 1987.

A Draft of Shadows

in magnetic rotation
link and scatter
on the page.

I am where I was:
I walk behind the murmur,
Footsteps within me, heard with my eyes,
The murmur is in the mind, I am my footsteps,
I hear the voices that I think,
the voices that think me as I think them.
I am the shadow my words cast.

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