Julio Valle-Castillo is a well known Nicaraguan poet born in Masaya,in 1952.His collections include Las Armainicales(Mexico 1977)and Formas Migratorias (Mexico1979).Since the Revolution of 1979 he has worked with Ernesto Cardenal in the Ministry of Culture and is the editor of its magazine,Poesia Libre.He is also on the editorial board of Nuevo Diario.On a visit to England in 1987 he wrote a long poem about the Kings Cross fire.The poems translated here are taken from his most recent collection Materia Jubilosa(Managua 1986)