Fernando Arbeláez and the Voices of Poetry

Fernando Arbeláez (1924–1995) is one of the most intriguing representatives of the Colombian poetry of the 20th century. Preoccupied with the various forms and meanings of the myth (he was also a member of the generation which founded the famous journal Mito), Arbeláez opened new paths in Latin American modern literature. His poetry is the unique expression of a personal mystic without a particular god and with no connection to a specific religion, somehow similar to the Oriental Tao: for the author, the poetic word is the major center of interest, but this poetic word has to be permanently enriched with all the characteristics of a new form of reality, always expressed by an inimitable art of writing and/or dreaming. [Article copies available for a fee from The Transformative Studies Institute. E-mail address: journal@transformativestudies.org Website: http://www.transformativestudies.org ©2026 by The Transformative Studies Institute. All rights reserved.] KEYWORDS: Colombian Poetry, Modernism, Oriental Thinking, Religion, Tao, Mystic.