The Envoy #110 – The official newsletter of the CCLA – Canada Cuba Literary All

THE ENVOY The official newsletter of the

Canada Cuba Literary Alliance I.S.S.N. – 1911‐0693

May 2021 Issue 110 www.CanadaCubaLiteraryAlliance.org

Photo sent by Canadian writer and reviewer, Gail Murray, edited by Jorge Alberto

The Envoy 110

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

Mother’s Day, a Time of Joy

by CCLA Cuban President and The Envoy Assistant Editor The Envoy editors join the world celebration of Mother´s Day. For those of us who have lost our mothers, the day carries a sad stain, yet we must find peace in the memories that come from having cherished precious moments by their side and having honored them during their time with us.

For those who still have the gift of their presence, profit from it to make them happy this particular day and always. It takes one to know one; only a mother knows what challenges, sacrifices, devotion, rewards and joys entail the many roles of motherhood. But we have constant clues of their love, their commitment and willingness to go to any lengths for their children´s sake and prepare them for life out there; we have clues of what children mean to them, as Lisa Makarchuk, our CCLA VP, so touchingly states in her poem below.

True to its cultural nature, The Envoy opens its pages congratulating mothers today with motherhood-related pictures and poems. Enjoy!

To My Daughter

by Lisa Makarchuk

You are LIGHT, a shooting star illuminating the firmament enlightening our environment a beacon on an outpost so way afar attracting, promoting healing LIFE through your journey you have grown in breadth of vision and integrity many are the seeds you‘ve sown always nourished with your intensity life may be unforgiving sometimes, as steel, unbending cold and hard, rusting and grey remember your starlight penetrates melts, molds, takes over its core changes it to malleable trophies to grace your soul to the fore we are here to do our toasts to your victories in overcoming all challenges with grace and joy to your courage in pursuing goals that are ever-farther reaching to horizons ever widening may your starlight illuminate all of those around you may you feel its reflection in profound love, respect and affection From your Ma, October 10, 2015(poem taken from the Bridges Series Books, Book III, Bottom of the Wine Jar. SandCrab Books, 2017) The Envoy 110

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

To Mama

by Lisa Makarchuk

at twenty-two you posed for a photo beside the house you and papa built the embroidery on your sleeves entwining a medley of patterns their “Ukainianness” reverberating an unmistakable immigrant status an alien in the wilderness steering through a prism of new language, new customs confusing demands, harsh expectations your face creased with care another “beast of burden to open up the West.” so long ago you birthed me covering me with maternal dust and those arms that held me reach out for me now in thought and memory your strength and wisdom gilded my being and resonate in every action you remain for us all our guardian angel. the photo is found in The National Archives in Ottawa and has appeared in a school text and journals on immigration.

My Mother is the Sun

by Marvin Orbach

My mother is the sun that runs in my veins, the light that brightens my dark eyes.

She smiles, and the farthest wilds of chaos rush together and become trees in a forest drinking, in quiet from the ground.

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

The tears of her, that on her cheek rolls is cool pond water, calling to her in the swallows of the air to look.

Like the crow that laughs in the sky, she is like all things bright.

She is my mother. (poem taken from Redwing. Hidden Brook Press, 2018, with Orbach´s daughter Ariella‘s permission

A Mother´s Silent Wish

by Graham Ducker The mother mused as her little boy strode out the door to play. ‗Would you mind if I tagged along on your adventures today? ‗I may not always be around to mend life‘s many bumps, so take some feathered kisses to put upon your lumps. ‗Scrapes on elbows and knobby knees repair easily, my dear, but if e‘er your heart gets broken, so will mine, I fear. ‗Maturity will stretch your mind for independency, I can but hope your future roads will hold some thoughts of me.‘ (poem taken from the Bridges Series Books, Book I, Taste of the Rainbow. SandCrab Books, 2011)

"On a special note of hope and aesthetics, expectations and renewal, please click on the following link: https://www.facebook.com/BrightonPublicLibrary/videos/vb.144705254 2213282/786655488894221/?type=2&theater You will enter a moment of pleasure thanks to a poem by Richard Grove, our CCLA Founding Prez, put to visuality and music."

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

For Mother Dear

by Richard Marvin Grove (Tai)

Thanks to Miguel for his “Father” poem My mother is a tower of kindness, and will always be such in the eyes of most.

She rises above us waging battles with joy and a smile, my brightest beacon still with her ninety plus years jubilant, bringing us light on every encounter.

Eternal joy in my heart, the hearts of so many.

My dear mother, a mirror, I look into and hope I find a bit of myself.

I know too few like her, have no other standard but her, there in the teachings of her example, in the ethics of her giving that will linger beyond the veil of good-bye when her ashes take flight in the wind that spreads her remembered joy as we stand to honor her farewell.

My Blessed Mother You are my past and my further mother dear, always close to my heart.

You have always held the light of kindness higher than the stars, brighter than our noonday sun.

The joy of returning to the soft caress of your smile‘s tender embrace has always rescued me from darkened nights.

You are my blessed Mother always in my heart. (poems taken from the Bridges Series Books, Book V, The Heart Upon the Sleeve. SandCrab Books, 2020) The Envoy 110

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

Mother

by Ernesto Galbán Peramo

A woman I love is aging but I have never written her a song; for her it is natural to endure the pain in her chest, she so often complains about.

She plaits, her grey hair: every single night rewinds in her mind her entire life; and when she forgets, she invites me to help her find her missing brooch.

Time forsakes her, yet she regales me with her incredible tender charm. She graces the things she touches. She is my mother and it is hard for me to put into words what I will feel when, one of these days, she departs to meet with my father. (poem taken from The Dream The Glory and The Strife, Hidden Brook Press, 2018)

Hoy es un momento

by Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias

A mi madre, in memóriam … poner en palabras lo que siento. Ernesto Galbán Hoy es un momento en que mi madre viene desde la eternidad para sentarse a mi lado, sonreír como los días en que me esperaba gentil en su balance favorito, ―Mi niño‖ en sus labios, brazos extendidos ola de aromas danzando en la cocina con mis platos preferidos.

Hoy es un momento en que visita mis sueños, me salva de lo que hiere cuando lo oscuro de la vida intimida con males arteros con sombras ominosas de máscaras colgando en los portales. Hoy es uno de esos momentos, y entrego, enteros, mi afecto, mi intelecto para poner mis mejores palabras en un papel photo by Miguel Olivé Iglesias The Envoy 110

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

diciéndole, ante el solemne silencio de su recuerdo, todo, todo lo que siento.

Today is a moment To my mother, in memoriam … to put in words what I feel. Ernesto Galbán Today is a moment when my mother returns from eternity to sit beside me, smile as the days she waited for me gentle in her rocking chair, ―My boy‖ on her lips, arms reaching out a wave of aromas dancing in the kitchen with my favorite dishes.

Today is a moment when she visits my dreams, saves me from what hurts when life´s darkness daunts with artful afflictions with ominous shadows of masks hanging from the porches. Today is one of those moments, and I offer, whole, my affection, my intellect to pour my best words onto a piece of paper telling her, before the sacred silence of her memory, all, all I feel.

While I watch over my mother

by Alina González Serrano (translated by Miguel Olivé) While I watch over my mother the clock ticks away unaware of threats and sickness. I tend to her, look out the window into a perfect blue sky and hopefully pray for a tomorrow when things will take an upturn for my family for all of us on earth. photo by Miguel Olivé Iglesias The Envoy 110

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

If we can ask for one thing to Amanda, Alianna and Ahitana

by Miguel Olivé & Alina González (translated by Miguel Olivé)

if we can ask for one thing, we want a future. Masks no longer covering the smiles of our daughters, the innocent laughter of our playful granddaughter muffled no more, her heartfelt goodbye kiss not filtering through the required cloth that separates her lips from our faces.

If we can ask for one thing, we ask for a future where they can run free again and splash in the healing power of the Gibara sea. photos taken by Miguel Olivé and edited by Jorge

A WORD ABOUT Diana Bruzón´s Poetry

by Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias CCLA Cuban President Author, Poet, Writer, Editor, Essayist I met Holguin poet Diana Bruzón thanks to Katharine Beeman, CCLA editor, poet, inveterate collaborator. Bruzón has published her poems in Cuba (where she has also made radio appearances to read her poetry), Spain and the US. Her writing borders on surrealistic and erotic chords, and we perceive an insinuating style vibrating between the lines. Her poetry is deep in its casual unfolding of provoking images, daring in its highly metaphorical mazes. She aches, but she revels in the experience too. She takes those shards of feeling pricking her soul and resculpts them into messages that are bittersweet (the hurting woman), sensual (the passionate

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

woman) and suggestive (the uninhibited woman). Reading Bruzón is trembling before semicryptic lines filled with desire, pierced by disillusion and kept alive and craving through twists of language that surprise and reveal innermost states of mind and body, in a woman who has breathed fully and has nothing to lose.

The two poems I chose for presenting her again (she was featured in the eBook, These Voices Beating in our Hearts: Poems from the Valley, a 2020 SandCrab Books anthology of eleven Holguin poets, a book that was commented on in previous Envoys) distance themselves somehow from her earlier more intricate elaborations. Sent to me recently for translation (originally Spanish-written, ―Navego‖ and ―Buscarte‖ respectively), both ―Sailing‖ and ―Looking for you‖ retain their fine metaphorical signature yet flow more naturally across the syntax proposed and the imagery deployed. We see a laidback writer, at home because of COVID restrictions, looking again around her, into her life and experiences, with plenty of time to knit and reknit her poetics, allowing me to edit her ideas (a privilege for me), thus rendering these two pieces to which I was immediately drawn. ―Sailing‖ is simple and embroidered with hope. In emails, the poet had complained she was ―in a writer´s block.‖ Days later she sent me this piece where inspiration does prove to have had a strong comeback. Bruzón re-finds the filmy threads of motivation prompted by higher muses: poetry itself, light, surroundings, company… ―Looking for you‖ also shows the poet´s renaissance from a no-writing condition in the phrase ―Darkness blinks breaking this silence.‖ There is a shaft of light reaching her, impelling her mind to create and her hand to materialize her feelings. As if it were a ―continued-from-― ―Sailing‖ in a way of post-text, quietly speaks of ―gentle surfs.‖ The puissance of her trope-full repertoire throbs in the next lines, as warm as her ―warm sand,‖ and hopeful as Bruzón has always managed to be despite life´s ups and downs. Finally, the rhetorical status of her closing questions stands out, epitomizing the confessions and pleas of a woman in love, so tastefully evocative of Barbra Streisand´s lines ―I am a woman in love and I´d do anything to get you into my world...;‖ only this time the poet is willing to embrace ―someone´s‖ world instead, shifting straight from a ―someone‖ in the former poem to ―you‖ in the latter: ―look for you in the waves…‖ Enjoy these poems.

Navego

by Diana Lucía Bruzón

Navego por las madrugadas buscando una luz para hacerme presente gracias al hechizo de una pluma, ese que traigo en cada verso y en cada sueño.

Vago cantando por trillos, ríos.

Tiento cada rostro y gesto.

Ahora puedo decir que tengo alguien que de vez en cuando da luz a mi vida y me deja la nota de la inspiración.

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

Sailing

by Diana Lucía Bruzón (translated by Miguel Olivé Iglesias) I sail across the early morning hours seeking light to make myself visible thanks to the charms of a pen, the ones I bring with every poem and every dream.

I wander singing along footpaths, rivers.

I fumble into every face and gesture.

Now I can say I have someone who from time to time lights up my life and leaves with me the touch of inspiration.

Buscarte

by Diana Lucía Bruzón La oscuridad parpadea rompiendo este silencio, suspiros y trinos… amanecer de leve oleaje.

Sobre la tibia arena dejaré señales de amor con olor a tinta… ¿Qué puedo hacer? ¿Sólo buscarte entre las olas...?

Looking for You

by Diana Lucía Bruzón (translated by Miguel Olivé Iglesias)

Darkness blinks breaking this silence, sighs and chirps… a dawn of gentle surfs.

I will place ink-scented signs of love on the warm sand…

What can I do?

Just look for you in the waves? (poems taken from the Bridges Series Books, Book III, Bottom of the Wine Jar. SandCrab Books, 2017)

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

Substance

… faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 1 Corinthians 13:13

by Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias Dear Tai, I am home today. Thanks to the laptop you brought me I can advance part of my work from home, a modality during these COVID days. But I miss your emails, a perk I don´t have here. My wife understands what I do and gives me room and time so I can focus. In the next room my mother-in-law is bedridden, restrained by broken-hip shackles, complaining. My wife has given up her job, her time and her own health to attentively look after her full time. My wife reminds me of my sister in Bayamo, watching over our 84 year old father, who is tumor-bitten, hardly walks losing more and more control over his legs, and sadly shrinks into mortality´s dusk.

My wife and my sister ―deserve a medal,‖ as we say in Cuba. Their lives are on hold, devoted to taking care of our dear ones.

I bow at such sacrifice of love. Out the window, life streams on. Onomatopoeia of screeches, engines revving up, tweets, honks, hollering and wind gusts accost my ears. A poly-idiomatic sample of animal gossip softened by the lulling symphony of leaves cooing in the air complements the auditory package. With it, polychrome light enters the room, blended bits of sky and sun; unstoppable everydayness playing out as it happens from the miracle of dawn splashed on the clock´s ordinance. And I am grateful for the collage. I thank the infinite display of life, its inspirational substance, its winding, mind-nourishing puzzles, marvelously falling into place orbiting towards a horizon where there is always struggle, faith, hope and love. I see them in my wife, in my sister, in so many unnamed others who look after their families, like Jorge and Michelle in Gibara. I feel them in what surrounds us and invisibly, gently, helps us up providing the Love we need when we fall then rise and move on.

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

A WORD ABOUT

“Extinction,” a poem by Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández

Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias CCLA Cuban President author, editor, essayist, poet, writer Our CCLA Ambassador, Jorge Pérez, completed two years as The Envoy Editor-in-chief last April. He has been a devoted editor bringing the newsletter to a new level. Jorge has grown as Ambassador for the CCLA, poet, writer, reviser, reviewer and editor. I have been following his writing talents for a long while. His first attempts flourished in 2012 under Richard Grove´s magic wand. From then on, he has been pouring out poetry, prose and reviews, which have appeared systematically in the CCLA publishing formats. Jorge´s poetry is labyrinthian oftentimes yet he manages to keep language choices accessible and touching. Jorge has focused on a broad variety of themes ranging from abstract ones, like love, to enrapturing ones, like nature leitmotifs. Out of all those poems he has dedicated to one of his closest loves, the alluring sea, I was particularly drawn to ―Extinction.‖ The poem came to me in Spanish (―Extinción‖). Jorge asked me to review it for his work-inprogress eBook (En mi silencio nocturno / In my Night Silence, SandCrab Books), where he includes sixty of his poems in celebration of his sixtieth birthday next November. The poem´s title was intriguing enough, so I started the process of line-to-line translation to proceed later with a second stage, which I call ―style translation.‖ From the onset, ―Extinction‖ sounds (title and first lines) ominous and obscure, its mood created by cue phrases like ―lifeless sea,‖ ―last time,‖ ―stunned waves,‖ ―The sea carries death,‖ etc. The syntax is short, simple and concise to convey the message directly. When it comes to sea topics, Jorge is a connoisseur. More than twenty years of living on a coastal town, being a fisherman and sailing off the coast to find his daily livelihood, account for that. Therefore, his profound face-to-face experience with the sea has been transferred, oftentimes cryptically, sometimes metaphorically, to his poetics.

Here we are, reading ―Extinction,‖ a poem revealing for us a responsive, keenly observant man who has seen and felt all of the ocean´s vast gamut, our eyes open wide. Here we are, being guided by the poet from the infinity of the skies down to the core theme of his poem, the sea.

However, when you reach the end, you realize Jorge ably led us – his eyes becoming our eyes all the way – to an apparently, and unexpected, non-central instant, a wondrous sunset.

His final line is impressive. It is a magnificent trope born out of Jorge´s capacity to discern and weave realities. And, it left me breathless. The entire dark atmosphere depicted earlier finds its dénouement in our understanding that what the poet is giving us are the day´s final moments by the sea, recorded – fortunately – by Jorge, who was there when it happened. Appreciate now the poem, and tomorrow, Jorge´s full eBook. Thank you, Jorge.

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

En Mi Silencio Nocturno In My Night Silence A SandCrab eBook of poems by Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández eBook format by Adislenis Castro Ruiz Picture taken by a friend of Jorge´s and edited by Richard Grove (Tai) (Jorge´s book´s front and back cover)

Extinción

by Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández Un rayo de luz cruza el firmamento, deja todo el cielo limpio, sin imágenes.

Solo hay luceros fríos que van huyendo.

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

Las estrellas tiemblan y caen al inerte mar.

Es la última vez que el mar refleja la noche.

Olas tristes y aturdidas.

El mar tiene muerte en su fondo, su color ahora es pálido, corre ensangrentado hacia la gran herida del ocaso.

Extinction A beam of light traverses infinity, it leaves behind an unmarked sky, no images.

There are only cold fleeing bright beams.

Stars tremble and fall into the lifeless sea.

This is the last moment the sea reflects the night.

Sad and stunned waves.

The sea courts death in its depth, its color is pale now, running bloodied towards the vast wound of sunset.

April 23rd

by Antony D Nardo

Today is the birthday of Romeo and Juliet, of Antony and Cleopatra, it‘s the birthday of Hamlet, Puck and Ariel, of Othello and Desdemona, Lear and Falstaff, it‘s even the birthday of the sonnet and no one can tell me otherwise.

Happy Birthday, you amazing creatures, creations risen from the depths of understanding, from the wells of imagination and pools of human impulse, those sudden shafts of brilliance— happy birthday to all that stuff of dreams that struts across the stage and then is heard forever. Happy Birthday, April 23rd !

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

Directo sin puntos ni comas de José Rafael Escalona Aguilera Desde la distancia reencontré una amiga no sé si antes se lo dije algún día tal vez si tal vez no pero esta oportunidad no sucedió por casualidad fue Dios? quién fue? no es lo más importante lo importante es que la escuché le hablé ella me pidió una ayuda será por casualidad? tal vez si tal vez no se la di nos comunicamos después hablamos de muchas cosas ella me preguntó será por casualidad? tal vez si tal vez no nos citamos yo asistí ella también será por casualidad? tal vez si tal vez no le hice una propuesta se lo dije así no directo llegamos ahí será por casualidad? tal vez si tal vez no ella dudó ah, dudan esto? le expliqué mis por qué ella los escuchó y los de ella me dio

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

nos encontramos a las diez si, está bien allí estaré yo llegué ella no será por casualidad? tal vez si tal vez no sin puntos ni coma directo será por casualidad? tal vez si tal vez no cuando apareciste en el chats tembl Hasta me dio pena saludarte Pero...

Ser por casualidad?

Tal vez si Tal vez no Entonces estabas decidido a enamorarme Totalmente mi amor Pero no podía ser directo eso lo dijiste t Ser por casualidad?

Tal vez si Tal vez no or qu no fuiste directo?

Pena Miedo Discreción u se yo mi amor Y luego tú hablaste de ser o no ser directo Ser por casualidad?

Tal vez si Tal vez no Todo pega mi amor Como una novela Ser por casualidad?

Tal vez si Tal vez no Qué lindo escuchar eso y yo sin saber Pues yo también te quiero mucho Sabes que siento una sensación extraña cuando hablo contigo Como si fuera una relación de tiempo Verdad mi amor Me pasa exactamente igual The Envoy 110

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

Y vuelvo al poema u puede ser nuestro himno de amor y le pondrás todas estas cosas mas Ser por casualidad?

Tal vez si Tal vez no Yo estoy como un adolescente mi amor Ser por casualidad?

Tal vez si Tal vez no Te gusto tanto as Viejita como estoy Y hace rato que me lo dijiste mi amor Ser por casualidad?

Tal vez si Tal vez no Y si yo llego a amarte profundamente y t no? u pasaría conmigo?

Eso no lo s Depende de como fluya la relación Quiero que sepas que te estoy sintiendo aquí no se por qu Ser por casualidad?

Tal vez si Tal vez no Hoy he sido muy feliz mi amor Te lo debo a ti A los dos Ser por casualidad?

Tal vez si Tal vez no

De quince de José Rafael Escalona Aguilera De quince dices, No. Dos coma siete veces más experta y bella desde el corazón.

De quince dices, No. Veinte más veinte y una más, de vida plena y vivida con esfuerzos, alegría y dolor.

De quince dices, No. Diez más veinte más once, de lucha y pasión.

De quince dices, No. Diez más diez más diez más diez más una ilusión es que son muchas, por Dios.

De quince dices, No. Cuarenta y una veces mejor.

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

Elizabeth Hernández Ordoñez, nació el 10 de Noviembre de 1964, vive en la provincia de Holguín, Cuba. raduada de Licenciatura en Educación en la especialidad de u mica, en el Instituto Superior edagógico ― os de la Luz y aballero‖ de la provincia de olgu n, uba. ll mismo se graduó de M ster en iencias de la Educación. ctualmente labora en el Instituto olit cnico "Alfredo Corcho Cinta" en el municipio de Cacocum, de esta provincia. Ha publicado en revistas cient ficas de pedagog a. Ha participado en eventos literarios.

AMOR

de Elizabeth Hernández Ordoñez

Oh! sentimiento profundo de fuerza desmedida recorres todo mi cuerpo para reconfortar la vida no es rutina ni ambición capricho o desventura es respeto, comprensión derroche de ternura la mentira no es posible, no conoce el rencor, hasta su nombre es sensible ¡eso se llama ― mor‖!

Poem for an electronic age

by K. Beeman As fat black lines of love all I have from you is your hand, writing when you asked did I want your address?

From you I have nothing but one address by hand.

From me you have photos I snapped books I read words my fingers stalked through the dictionary from me you have a rock or four summer worn beads of stone and wood.

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

Write me letters in ink and lead send me a rock you picked send me sand passed through your hand send me a thread from your shirt send me sea salt filtered by your hair a rain drop caressing your cheek.

Send me words touched handled smudged, with sweat distinct by indistinctness, send me not only through the air anonymous o‘s and 1‘s.

Poema para una edad electrónica de K. Beeman

Como gordas líneas negras de amor todo lo que tengo de ti es tu mano, escribiendo cuando preguntaste ¿si quise tu dirección?

De ti, no tengo nada salvo una dirección escrita a mano.

De mí, tienes fotos que tomé libros que leí palabras que mis dedos acecharon a través del diccionario de mí, tienes una piedra o cuatro colgantes de piedra y madera usadas en verano.

Escríbeme cartas en tinta y lápiz envíame una piedra escogida envíame arena que atravesó tus manos envíame un hilo de tu camisa envíame sal marina filtrada en tu pelo una gota de lluvia que acaricia tus mejillas.

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

Envíame palabras tocadas manejadas manchadas, con sudor definidas por indistintas envíame no sólo a través del aire anónimos 0 y 1.

Anchor

by K. Beeman on being a long-distance away, to my love

In trembling shimmering air one anchor, for all depth and distance, floats and holds – the only anchor the breath of love.

Ancla

de K. Beeman

estando a larga distancia, a mi amor En el aire tembloroso centelleante un ancla, para toda profundidad y distancia, flota y sostiene – solo un ancla el aliento del amor.

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

I received this yesterday from the Speaker of the House. I am pleased to have been nominated by two individual sources. My local MPP Toby Barrett and the founder of The Ontario Poetry Society both saw fit to nominate me for this prestigious position, and I received letters of support from Richard (Tai) Grove Poet Laureate of Brighton and founder of The Canada Cuba Literary Society of which I am currently Poet Laureate, and Mary Ann Mulhern who is presently serving a term as Poet Laureate of Windsor. My congratulations to Randell Adei appointed Poet.

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MAY 2021 THE ENVOY-110 – EDITOR- Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández – joyphccla@gmail.com

MASTHEAD – Jorge Alberto Pérez Hernández our CCLA ambassador as editor – Miguel Ángel Olivé Iglesias our Cuban president as assistant editor – Adonay Pérez Luengo our Cuban vp as reviewing editor – Lisa Makarchuk our Canadian vp as reviewing editor – Miriam Estrella Vera Delgado our Cuban poet laureate as reviewing editor

Editor: 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 THAT WE ARE NURTURED BY YOU! IF YOU HAVE BOOKS COMING OUT, A POETRY EVENT, JUST LET US KNOW!

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