Sue Evans on her 26:50 assignment to write about Angel Cuadra
The
50 words obviously need to stand on their own merit; however, for background my
poem's format is loosely based on a 'glosa', a Spanish poetic tradition used by
Angel Cuadra in his 'Correspondence of Poems' written in prison. As I
understand it, a 'glosa' is improvised poetry written in response to a piece of
existing verse. At great risk to himself, Cuadra continued to correspond
covertly with Cuban poet Juana Rosala in America always using this form of
poetry to respond to various short poems sent to him from her. My improvised
poem is based on the 1967 hit 'Are you going to San Francisco?' written by John Phillips of
the Mamas & the Papas and performed by Scott McKenzie. (I guess you
probably got that - I'm old enough to remember 1967 but not sure everyone else
is.)
I've included some words in Spanish in the text as I believe this helps to
contextualise Cuadra as a Spanish speaking poet. The Combinado del Este is the
name of the prison where he served much of his sentence and which by all
accounts is still a very harsh place. The last lines of each verse are a direct
Spanish translation of a word (closed) from the previous line in the first
verse; and a translation of the complete penultimate line in the second.
And a plus - you can find The Poet in Socialist Cuba on Amazon.
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