From the 2019 APCA Award-winning author Carlos Cardoso, Coragem presents a collection of poems in constant tension, contradiction and paradox, characteristic of the author's poetic endeavor.
Echoing important trends in contemporary poetry, Carlos Cardoso uses themes such as lyricism and visual work in his work, in addition to establishing a dialogue with modern poets such as Mário de Andrade, Carlos Drummond de Andrade and João Cabral de Melo Neto.
In the afterword, professor and literature researcher Celia Pedrosa states about the comparison between the concepts highlighted by the titles Courage and Melancholy , the author's most awarded book: “If at first they seem to be not only distinct but also opposite emotions, suggesting a change in worldview, they can, depending on their use, and on the contrary, be once again signs of the simultaneous presence of two forces that inhabit his poetry.”
"Carlos Cardoso's poetry, above all, is a survival technique. His visceral connection to writing permeates his life. Carlos Cardoso communicates through poetry, survives through poetry." - Heloisa Buarque de Hollanda
“Some of Carlos Cardoso's poems are among the best in contemporary Brazilian poetry.” - Italo Moriconi
"In an implicit dialogue with Drummond's 'Tudo é teus, que enuncias,' Carlos Cardoso declares: 'This landscape belongs to me, / sea, trees, rust, birds' ― all forms of matter, mineral, vegetable, animal. In a single verse, the universe is condensed, and it is up to poetry to perpetually ritualize the staging of a world without origin and without end. This is what Carlos Cardoso does, with talent and consistency." - Antonio Carlos Secchin
“The poem wanders, but everything remains intact ― that is the lesson of poetry.” - Silviano Santiago
“Carlos Cardoso starts from the simplicity of barefoot poetry, which is nourished by the economy of means to achieve a multidimensional tone, in the irony before the world and in the algebra, capable of indicating the delicate connection between world and freedom.” - Marco Lucchesi
