What do you think?
Rate this book
Bajo los arces: Antología personal
Luis MARCELINO GÓMEZ (Holguín, 1950). Tiene editado dos Canción a solo (Brasil, 1998) y Hambre de pez (España, 1999) y aparece en las siguientes antologí Colección de poesía (editor Orlando Coré Fernández. Miami, FL, 2008), y Antología de la poesía cubana del exilio (editora Odette Alonso Yodú. Valencia, Aduana Vieja, 2011). Ha publicado, además, cuatro colecciones de Donde el sol es más rojo (EUA, 1994), Oneiros (EUA, 2002), Memorias de Angola. Cuentos africanos (Colombia, 2003,2008) y Cuando llegaron los helechos, Monte Ávila Editores Latinoamericana (Venezuela, 2009). Fue uno de los narradores es- cogidos por Letras Cubanas para la antología Isla tan dulce y otras historias. Cuentos cubanos de la diáspora (La Habana, 2002). En 1985 un jurado presidido por Onelio Jorge Cardoso le otorgó el Premio Nacional de Cuento en La Habana y en 2007 fue finalista del premio de cuento Juan Rulfo, en París. También ha publicado narrativa, ensayo y poesía en revistas de África, Europa, las Américas y el Cercano Oriente.
124 pages, Paperback
Published January 10, 2018
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 26, 2026
This is an anthology, so the themes vary widely. We travel with the poetic speaker across the world and throughout time—some pieces are from the 80s while others are much more recent.
Gómez can really paint a scene and, unlike others in my limited experience with contemporary Hispanic poetry, he is willing to tie things together, to take the piece beyond mere description. “Advertencia” is an example, where he starts with a description of river contamination but then eventually, with this notable image of the river, makes it a commentary on how fleeting life is in general.
He also has some great line breaks, such as in “Modernidad”:
La ciudad yace diáfana, inocente
muere la gente de cáncer de pulmón.
What a pair of lines.
“Antigua que es la noche” may be my favorite piece overall—it brings together some vivid images along with larger commentary.
Some other repeated themes are rootlessness/outsider/travel (looking for a home beyond Cuba), aging, and the search for community. Loneliness permeates many of these pieces. Many of the poems are short and, while I respect that he may have been aiming for a particular form or style, I often wish he would have kept writing.
The one thing: I’m not a fan of poems about the writing process, and it felt like there were… more than 5 of that type of poem in this book, including the opener. There are dozens of poems in this collection, and I don’t think it would have been hurt in the least by not including most of the poetic process poems.
There is some really great stuff in this collection, and it’s a bummer that I’m the first review of this on GR. I’m very confident that, if you pick this up, Gómez will have something to say to you.
¿Qué sentimientos contemplará el río
en la hora de las estrellas” (“Homenatge”)
Gómez can really paint a scene and, unlike others in my limited experience with contemporary Hispanic poetry, he is willing to tie things together, to take the piece beyond mere description. “Advertencia” is an example, where he starts with a description of river contamination but then eventually, with this notable image of the river, makes it a commentary on how fleeting life is in general.
He also has some great line breaks, such as in “Modernidad”:
La ciudad yace diáfana, inocente
muere la gente de cáncer de pulmón.
What a pair of lines.
“Antigua que es la noche” may be my favorite piece overall—it brings together some vivid images along with larger commentary.
Some other repeated themes are rootlessness/outsider/travel (looking for a home beyond Cuba), aging, and the search for community. Loneliness permeates many of these pieces. Many of the poems are short and, while I respect that he may have been aiming for a particular form or style, I often wish he would have kept writing.
The one thing: I’m not a fan of poems about the writing process, and it felt like there were… more than 5 of that type of poem in this book, including the opener. There are dozens of poems in this collection, and I don’t think it would have been hurt in the least by not including most of the poetic process poems.
There is some really great stuff in this collection, and it’s a bummer that I’m the first review of this on GR. I’m very confident that, if you pick this up, Gómez will have something to say to you.
¿Qué sentimientos contemplará el río
en la hora de las estrellas” (“Homenatge”)
Displaying 1 of 1 review