Ismael Sambra

Family Man or Monologue of Confessions Ismael Sambra

This book of intimate poems was written in the difficult circumstances of a time where Cuban poetry had acquired an apologetic and exteriorist tone. It was a finalist at the International Contest Casa de Las Américas, 1984 Cuba, and Unique Mention in the National of Poetry Heredia, 1986. This special second edition, translated from Spanish to English is to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its first publication. Some critics and poets had this to say: "... Almost 20 years after being written, these tremendously successful poems reappear with the same sharpness of that period. "Because I let you go / you are already absent / because you came rigid to my border / in my vast mirror where I go without compass/ you turned into knot in my center". But it is not only their quality that makes them valuable, these poems also have the courage to have been among the first to detach themselves from the apologetic tone of Cuban poetry of those times." (Manuel C. Díaz, critic of Nuevo Herald Dec. 2000)"... As long as there is a God, there will be poetry and men like Ismael Sambra will continue with their verses and their attitudes returning to the words their original and primal meaning." (María Elena Cruz Varela, writer, Madrid, 2000)"... Sambra gives us in this book a very particular semblance of true intimacy, the existence of the things that surround us and that speak instead of us. His poetry comes from the colloquium and reflection with a direct but metaphorical language in the manner of Erza Pound and T. S. Eliot. It is also poetry of the images, of the objects, of the small remembrances, of that which survive to us and is somehow very inside, in our spirit. His book is deeply original and means a step further in the eternal search for dialogue that the poet establishes with the darkness." (Francisco López Sacha, writer, critic, professor of International Film and Television School, Cuba)"... This book of poems is superb and humble at the same time, intimate in the manner as it makes public the intimate things. Tenderly colloquialist when the poet warns us "sincere and subtle with poetry or wise phrase of a child". No one should doubt it, here there is poetry of high carats." (Félix Luis Viera, poet, writer) Many other comments can be found in the introduction of the book.