THE ENVOY The official newsletter of the
Canada Cuba Literary Alliance I.S.S.N. – 1911‐0693
December, 2019 Issue 094 www.CanadaCubaLiteraryAlliance.org
CCLA Trip January-February 2020 Week 1 (Monday, January 27th through Saturday, February 1st): Gibara Week Monday January 27 Land in Holguin Airport Jorge will arrange a cab to pick you up and take you to Gibara We will meet you at your B&B Dinner together Tuesday January 28 Meet at 10:00 to tour the town of Gibara (Craft store, bank, view the town from the lookout) Lunch together 2:00 writing exercise - "Where do ideas come from?" Dinner together Wednesday January 29 Morning off to write Meet for lunch to enjoy a pizza Trip to hot spring Return to Gibara 4:00 writing exercise on poetry Dinner at “El Coral” restaurant Thursday January 30 Morning to write or visit the Natural History Museum Meet for lunch 2:00 cave excursion with Jorge and his guitar Dinner at “the Cave” restaurant
DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
Friday, January 31 11:00 take ferry to visit the other side of the Bay spend the day exploring Take sandwich lunch Dinner together Saturday, February 1st Free day to write and relax
Week 2 (Sunday, February 2nd through Monday, February 10th): Holguín Week Sunday February 2nd Church service of your choice in morning or just relax Meet at lunch 2:00 Sharing of writing we have worked on Dine together Monday February 3rd Late breakfast 11:00 leave for Holguin Go directly to Mirador Hotel Lunch at hotel Afternoon relax at pool Dine at hotel Tuesday February 4th Breakfast together 10:30 meet for workshop "Memoir writing exercise" Lunch together Writing afternoon Dine at hotel Wednesday February 5th 10:30 meet in the lobby of hotel Go downtwon to Holguin Lunch at restaurant Tour downtown after lunch Return to hotel for dinner Thursday February 6th 10:30 meet in the lobby to go to the university, UNEAC, art gallery Return to hotel around 3:00 Writing workshop - Writing a short story Dinner at hotel 2
DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
Friday February 7th Free day at hotel Saturday February 8th 10:30 go downtown to hear Cuban music Eat lunch at a restaurant Return to the hotel at 3:00 Dinner together Sunday February 9th Free day by the pool to write Share writing at 4:00 Dine together Monday February 10th Return to Toronto
SOME OF THE PLACES YOU WILL VISIT DURING YOUR STAY IN GIBARA
Pics taken by Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández The Natural History Museum 3
DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
Requesting Works for the XVI issue of The Ambassador, take out the magazine of the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance with guests Poets from Canada James Deahl and Norma West Linder
The Ambassador is requesting poetry, prose, art, photography and book reviews for its next issue. The flagship magazine of the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance, The Ambassador, will be publishing its sixteenth issue – and first of 2020. Themes for this edition are the elements, flora and fauna: a feast about rain, seasons, nature, wild life, days cycles, etc. Poets look at nature with recurrent passion and lyricism, so Tai, Katharine and I (Miguel Angel) happily coincided on the idea of dedicating this issue to it in its broad definition and scope: rain, seasons, nature, wild life, circadian rhythms, etc. They are both refuge and freedom, awe and wonderment before what is around us and makes us write or paint or capture with a lens. We will be caught in swirling storm, be blessed by rain be at one with the ocean or air or land, live through the changing seasons – shiver in winter, bloom in spring, perspire in summer, contemplate fall – our muses awakened by them. We will blossom and fade with a flower, fly in the wings of a proud bird or shudder at the beauty of a feline. Feelings, states, conditions, processes take over the poets´ minds and hearts, canvassed and displayed uniquely with cameras, pens and brushes nurturing revelry to lift our souls and light up our lives. Welcome to this celebration of the earth the same on that Al Purdy and José Martí loved and defended in art and action. All the works we use in The Ambassador are translated into English and Spanish and published in the two languages.
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DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
Please send your work to the Editor-in-Chief, Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias to both of his email addresses: cclacubanprez@gmail.com & migueloi@uho.edu.cu Please, send your photography and art to the Art Editor, Richard M. Grove, writers@hiddenbrookpress.com Format for written works: Poetry: Maximum (each poem) 40 lines including title and blank lines. Poems of 20 lines or less are preferable. Prose: Maximum 1000 words. Book Reviews: Reviews of Cuban and Canadian books are welcome. Reviews of CCLA members’ books will have a priority. Maximum 350 words and may include short excerpts of poems or prose which would not be included in the word count. Send reviews to Miguel and send jpg of cover to Richard. Format for visual work: Photography, digital paintings and art should be sent electronically only. Do not send hard copies or original art. No mailed art will be returned or responded. Please send the electronic file as a 72 dpi jpg, gif or tiff only. Please make the image size not larger than 4 X 6 inches. Please, send a maximum of six images. This is a submission process only; these low res images will not be used in the magazine. Once a selection has been made, you will be required to send the selected image/s by email as 300 dpi jpg, gif or tiff. Please, do not send larger images as they will be rejected automatically by the email server and we will not know that you have sent them. Deadline: March 1st, 2020 Please accompany your work with a brief (50-75 word) literary biography. The Canada Cuba Literary Alliance thanks you in advance for your submissions. Canada Cuba Literary Alliance www.CanadaCubaLiteraryAlliance.org The goal of the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance is to advance literary and artistic solidarity between Canada and Cuba through the creative expression of poetry, prose, and photography. Canada Cuba Literary Alliance 109 Bayshore Road, RR#4, Brighton, Ontario, Canada, K0K1H0 Phone - (613) 475-2368 Cell - (416) 988-8014 Fax - (801) 751General CCLA President / Presidente General de la ALCC– Richard M. Grove, Canadian Vice-president /Vice-Presidente canadiense– Lisa Makarchuk Cuban CCLA President/Presidente cubano de la ALCC - Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias, Cuban Vicepresident /Vice-presidente cubana– Adonay B.Pérez Luengo Editor-in-chief/Jefe editor: Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias, Contributing editor/Redactora colaboradora: Katharine Beeman
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DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
SOME OF THE PLACES YOU WILL VISIT DURING YOUR STAY IN GIBARA
Las Cuevas Restaurant
View of Bariay
Cultural House, Gibara
PICS TAKEN BY JORGE 6
DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
SECTION
“A WORD ABOUT…”
by The Envoy Assistant Editor, Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias As I have thankfully mentioned before, in these last three years, especially the past four months, my bookshelf has become a treasure trove topped to capacity. Richard Grove (Tai), Founding President of the Canada Cuba Literary Alliance (CCLA), has been bringing me Canadian poets´ books on a yearly basis since 2017, and has successfully encouraged others to do so, which they have. Thanks to James Deahl too, I am receiving almost monthly packages from poets and scholars. I have been “visited” lately by Laurie Kruk, Ronnie Brown and Henry Beissel.
LAURIE KRUK In the words of Jeannette Lynes, Kruk “bears witness to the multiplicity and elusiveness of the self… The poems… dance with ancestral shadow and light.” (Taken from the book’s back-cover comments by Lynes). Kruk’s poetry does honor multiplicity and elusiveness, and overflows with ancestral flashbacks. Take “Cousin Allie’s Garden,” “Charlie and Elsie,” “Baba’s Donut Shop Lament,” or “The Generations Visiting his Family,” to mention a few. These poems are stories Kruk narrates with a touch of nostalgia, both sadness and joy present in them. The poet, a Professor of English Studies too, handles the language skillfully with surprising turns, syntactical “pranks” and overlapping meanings to enter into and reemerge from the quicksands of feelings and experiences of all sorts. This is noticeable in “Pangaea” where the poet plays with the concepts of intimacy and unity beyond the context of land. She uses as an excuse the definition of Pangaea in both quotation and first stanza to introduce sustained, erotic imagery describing foreplay, “This is where we begin, again / to melt edges / in night’s rejoining,” mapping out the scene: “My northern thigh / mounted over your southern pelvis, / burnt savannah meeting snow.” She was able to combine geological, physical/emotional and local political themes in one poem. Kruk is an author who gets involved and turns her poem into a thought-provoking piece that defends, by traveling through space-time-personal references, her commitment to family and values. Canadian poets´ remarkable connection with the land and their identification with nature and wild life, peculiarly stand in Kruk’s poem “lingering bird.” The poem interacts in simple words with natural-human textures, weaving interplays of appealing, many-layered import. The poet “pans her camera” with a description of outdoor life in a creative, imaging observation: “Clouds drop / and forests thin. A skin of ice slows the stream / as the land dreams of snow.” The last five lines bring closure to the poet, the “you” referred to in the poem and readers themselves, as the physical aspect is finally released – “warm wings lift, / open” – yet the spiritual one remains anchored by those wings that are “locking down / your heart.” The heart, essentially decisive, stays – lingers. This is Laurie Kruk, just outlined. Enjoy now the first part of “Lingering bird.” (Taken from Loving the Alien 2006). Scrivener Press, Canada). Unfortunately, I have no written permission from the publishers to present the whole poem, so I give you a fragment, based on their specification, and I quote: “except for brief passages quoted by a reviewer.” But, you can find the book and read it full! My complete essay will be available in due time as a tribute to Laurie Kruk’s poetry.
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DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
Lingering bird for Ian Clouds drop and forests thin. A skin of ice slows the stream as the land dreams of snow. The flight Is on, and wings are tested. …
RONNIE R. BROWN
Nights have invariably been a source of inspiration for writers, artists, poets, lovers and film makers. U.S. born Canadian poet, Ronnie R. Brown, slips into – and tunnels us through – nights, dreams and wandering, piquant thoughts, exploiting them as favorite themes in her poetry. She explores with underlying sensuousness those dark places/states we enter when we close our eyes, and pulls us in through words and images that will stay with us. In a mixture of themes, well-arranged and eerily narrated, the poet puts on our bed forty-seven dreampoems in her book “Night Echoes”. Readers will be wading in all sorts of emotions crackling with sound off or on, in the bottomless confines of the mind, oozing and shaping up human feelings: angst, desire, disappointment, delight, frustration, aspirations, suppressed, conditions, love, lust, etc. Take “Back to Nature,” for example, where an ordinary excursion, “A Sunday nature drive, / and the kids´ heads are / filled with storybook animals…” develops into nightmarish anticipations. An ironically sad twist in the poem comes when “the youngest spots fur–a tail / loosely connected to a flat matted mass / flaps as cars speed by. Silence…” Then the father’s lame excuse of “modern natural selection” turns the drive into “the horrors tonight’s dreams will bring,” especially for the kids. Sensually rousing is “Going Down.” The pretext for the elevator scene lies in the woman’s line: “Let me tell you about a dream I had.” From it, the fantasy, the “virtual” affair: “… her voice a near whisper, / about a man and a woman / in an elevator, / about blouses and belts, / flesh and nipples…” The poet escalates with “… until finally / she whispers, her breath, / her mouth, only millimeters from / his ear, “… and then and then…” I was pleasurably unsettled by “then and then,” as it gives me freedom to think and add, almost as a participant, whatever my stimulated mind elaborates. Uniquely moving is Brown’s poem “A Mother’s Dream.” Take the opening lines, this is the mother’s fantasy: “Standing at the door of her child’s room, / she watches as he sleeps, moves quietly / to him… / brushes back his hair, smiles… / She wants to stay, stand there / forever, but she knows she can’t.” Even when sadness envelops the poem, the mother’s determination and above all her capacity to dream and be optimistic against all odds, save the poem and bring some peace to the reader. The line “Some nights she dreams / he is with her…” is reinforced by the closing lines: “… she thinks she sees / a flash of recognition / in his eyes, the hint of a smile. / The doctors tell her this / is an impossibility, but / after all, a mother can dream.” 8
DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
I see strength and certainty in the book, and it is definitely disturbing and inspirational! Even when the settings are a dream territory, Brown depicts believable characters and situations, surely because our dreams are reflections of realities and experiences we undergo, which urge us on while we are awake. Shielded in the fortress of sleep she handles the poems with resourcefulness and emancipation to say what she means to say. After all, a poet can dream… For reasons of consistency, I am publishing also a fragment of one of her poems. She kindly sent it to me for publication. Do find “Night Echoes”, please, and enjoy…
Magical Thinking Shrouded in wool and flannel, she stands looking out the window into the frigid night. Beyond the wall, so cold to the touch, lights dance off the ice-coated snow. Frozen in place, eyes half-closed, she imagines winter sprites like those who populate her granddaughter’s story books: can almost see the tiny creatures--bodies more perfect than hers has ever been … HENRY BEISSEL Canada’s grandeur has come to me through many of its poets. They have sung to its vastness and exuberance, to its weather and landscape extremes, to its unique beauty. By only mentioning Al Purdy, I think I make my point clearly. However, one other figure stands out too. Tamaracks. Canadian Poetry for the 21st Century, an anthology edited by James Deahl and conceived to offer readers, at home and abroad a panorama of contemporary Canadian poetry, included a wonderful host of 113 poets, among them Beissel. He chose to send for publication four brief poems. These four poems address nature as it unfolds before us and delineates our existence. “fall” limns a season that feels good in the poet’s heart. He gently describes the setting, “… my shadow leans / across wet matted leaves / tall against the glistening / black trunks of maples…” and introduces a metaphorical expression, “… maples / stretching naked into the dawn.” Music being a substantial part of his life, the poet pauses to “… listen to the cool / blues in the sky” – blues-creating skies – and immediately relates thoughts: “You’re the woods / and the wind whistling… for a solitary dance.” Once more, nature and what is human blend in his next stanza: “… the frost will rob the birds / of their song / leaving us / to our loving.” Notice that “the frost will rob the birds…” Indicative mood, empowering sentence: the frost is capable of robbing. He continues with “winter.” The first lines read: “Stamping its feet on the roof / and howling down the chimney / a furious east wind pulls the clouds…,” using epithets to enhance the power of the poem: “… a white / frenzy of whirling dances…,” down below, a combination of epithet and personification: “winter’s wild and murderous hordes. // … their ice-cold fury.” Personification holds up in “spring.” The first stanza is a good example: “The young sun raises flowers / from dead leaves and greens / the fallow fields panting / with moist aromatic breath.” The poet displays fields that pant – may I say who again – and have breath. The human component is hinted at as an addition to the natural setting; nevertheless, the poet does not include people but objects driven by them: “A tractor stutters down the pasture / Steel hands rip the earth…” The poet returns to the birds (“Birds breed camouflaged…”). Nature’s leading role is evident and as is noticeable that the poet does not fail to see her and produces 9
DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
two class-one metaphors with the verb “bend”, The wind bend shadows, and the verb “blow” … (the wind) blows your hair / into torrents of desire. A gentle passion flutters wings in Beissel’s “torrents of desire,” one that confers intimacy and sensuousness to the poem. The last stanza proves my assumptions about personification being at the center of these four poems: “Our moments of happiness / are in the hands of clocks / with nerves of steel.” Beissel’s fourth poem in Tamaracks is “summer.” It reverberates with majesty in portraying the higher, unstoppable forces of nature: “The force that pulls / trees and grasses… / pushes their roots / through silt and stone / down to the dark / pole of all beginnings.” Here Beissel directs the readers´ eyes and mind to the “footprints” of summer, displayed in color, sound (music) and movement. The last three lines, which I will quote fully, revisit the intimacy and sensuousness of his companion I referred to before, metaphorically blended with music – a must in the poet’s life: “You dance through my heart / like a fantasy / for violin and piano.” This is Henry Beissel. Read “Tamaracks” where you can have full access to his poems as well as poetry written by other 113 Canadian poets. Here a fragment of one of his poems in the book. Enjoy.
fall After the pizzicato rains last night my shadow leans across wet matted leaves tall against the glistening black trunks of maples stretching naked into dawn. I listen to the cool blues in the sky. You’re the woods and the wind whistling a sullen air for a solitary dance.
Pic taken and edited by Jorge 10
DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
Our Cuban CCLA Prez and his family
Pic taken by her father Miguel Angel
Pic taken by Migluel´s friend
Pics taken by a student "THE CCLA IS PROMOTED IN CLASSES OF ENGLISH BY OUR ASSISTANT EDITOR AND OTHER UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS" 11
DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
Photo and design: Richard M. Grove Coming up soon, “In a Fragile Moment: A Landscape of Canadian Poetry”, a book of Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias, to be published by Hidden Brook Press.
Cuban Winter (In collaboration with Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias) Winter’s wild and murderous hordes. Henry Beissel Wintry wind whistles in tonight through the blinds cuts our skin, freezes our blood laughing at those who say Cuba has no winter at all. 12
DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
The electric fans rest, cold too, silent after working nonstop during eleven – even eleven and a half months. We are never satisfied: Whether we complain our long summers are extremely hot and we sigh for winter or then it comes, making the blankets we just bought seem overly expensive, very filmy and definitely useless.
Raingift To my wife, Alina After the pizzicato rains. Henry Beissel That rainbow in the distance. Robert A. Boates After the rain the gift of transparency, a sky bathed in light letting the sun dry it intimately, warmly; yet not before it showered its host of beads upon the grateful land. Then a rainbow over the city the return of chirping people and their skeptical umbrellas reappearing in the streets and we as grateful as the land warm bathed in light and life embraced. 13
DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
TEMPTATION by Miriam Estrella Vera Delgado
That mischievous brightness In your eyes, Tells me you’ve never been Of innocent creation; An invitation to play Forbidden games, Is always there in you… As a temptation.
SIN OR GAME by Miriam Estrella Vera Delgado
You said we hadn’t Sinned, You said: “It’s like A game.” You said we didn’t Betray, There’s nobody To blame.
THE TRAP by Miriam Estrella Vera Delgado
I went to see a wise man, To clear up all my doubts; I asked him: “What’s desire?” “What’s wanting all about?” He answered me with sureness: “You’ve fallen into the trap!” “Such powerful attraction, Makes you helpless; That’s ill luck!” 14
DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
MY SEARCH by Adela González-Longoria Escalona Dreams still incomplete dreams that flew away, i know they are out there somewhere, they wait for me; the brain is mere matter: it dies and vanishes. The world around me that is a certainty as long as it lives in our memories, I seek in space the image that unfolds the bitterness of what cannot be done, bleeding from the fortitude of my mind reflecting in every drop of blood the worn out urgency of my dreams.
Pic taken and edited by Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández
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DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
HURRICANE By Paul Corman A hurricane blows in off the coast without warning or mercy. The wind is hot in my face daring me to fear the consequences of catastrophic possibilities. I run down the cobblestone street toward Adele's house near the edge of town where sugar cane crowds up against old stone walls. It begins to thunder and rain as I knock loudly on her door hoping she is happy to see me. It's a Wednesday night and she should be alone. On the weekends, though, she's often busy with her regular customers. Businessmen from the city, Rodeo Cowboys with their winnings to spend, politicians resting from their war on the hearts and minds of the unborn. Weekdays are open for “boys with big hearts like yours,” she tells me one afternoon as we soak in the big iron tub, with hot steam filling the bathroom. Men and some women, cannot resist her intoxicating charm. For a while, there was a priest who came to see her regularly. She threw him out one afternoon on a sunny day when tourists wandered the streets searching for that perfect picture. He came back every morning for a week and stood on the road calling her name. One afternoon he threw himself in front of a delivery truck speeding down her street. The truck driver had new brakes and quick reflexes and the priest survived with a broken leg and a near-death experience that caused him to quit the Order and join the Merchant Navy. Adele has some serious mojo. Curves that could put an eye out and a way of walking like a cat in heat ready to pounce on any unsuspecting mouse. Not to kill the rodent, mind you, but to possess it for a while. To play with it-drawing her claws through soft fur, feeling for warm shivering flesh. Tasting its fear in her mouth and demanding respect as crisp new bills are left on the bedside table. The End
Pic taken and edited by Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández 16
DECEMBER, 2019 ENVOY-094 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com
Mini-Bio Rosabella Prieto Góngora Born Saturday, December 9th, 2000 in Holguín City, Cuba. Today she resides in Gibara, Holguín. She is a Teacher Education English Major student, a sophomore, at Holguín University. Member of the Lit Group of Gibara´s Cultural Center. She has conducted TV shows about reading since she was a child, participated in literary contests and at age eight was awarded third prize in the contest “Reading Martí.” She was second in a national contest called “Poems about Gibara´s Migrating Birds” and second again in a local contest, “Trasagua.” She is a current member of the Sea Dreamers. This is her first poem to be published by The Envoy.
Smiling Soul by Rosabella Prieto Góngora I love to face the sea sitting next to the seashore Sunrise kissing the skyline a delicious cup of hot Cuban coffee in my hand. I feel the wind on my face coming from the east, waves splashing against my legs raindrops sparkling over my head a school of blue fishes always around me tender fins tickling my toes. My soul leads my thoughts up to heaven.
E-mails: joyph@nauta.cu
joyphccla@gmail.com jorgealbertoph@infomed.sld.cu
CANADA CUBA LITERARY ALLIANCE
FROM THE EDITOR: IN OUR UPCOMING ISSUES, WE WOULD LIKE SUBMISSIONS
FROM EVERY CCLA MEMBER SO WE ARE NURTURED BY YOU! IF YOU HAVE BOOKS COMING OUT, A POETRY EVENT, JUST LET US KNOW !!!!!!!! 17