In the best sense, criticism is a dialogue: it goes beyond explanation or exegesis to approach the work and the author; it envelops them and brings them closer to us. In this case there is a double merit, a poet initiates us into the poetry of another poet. Whoever brings it to us understands the craft, the game and the winks; he discovers them like a gambusino with a gold nugget, gives us their value and context, justifies it and shows it to us on the right side and on the other side.
The text, originally born as an introduction to a Spanish anthology of the poetry of José Emilio Pacheco, was updated and expanded by Luis Antonio de Villena to take us along the paths of a significant work by the time these pages began to take shape. He considers him as an author who was already heading towards a classic status and that is why he affirms: "I believe that the critic can and should be forceful: the poetry of José Emilio Pacheco is a singular, high, contradictory, suggestive and suggestive adventure between the word made flesh and the word made book. It is, certainly, a great poetry."