Issue Five Contents

4 poems
by Domingo Alfonso
2 poems
by Rito Ramón Aroche
3 poems
by Caridad Atencio
Flower Power
by Miguel Barnet
2 poems
by Pierre Bernet
2 poems
by Yanelys Encinosa Cabrera
4 poems
by Alberto Peraza Ceballos
3 poems
by Maria Liliana Celorrio
4 poems
by Felix Contreras
art
by Wally Gilbert
3 poems
by Georgina Herrera
3 poems
by Karel Leyva
3 poems
by Robert Manzano
2 poems
by Roberto Méndez Martínez
Grand Prismatic Spring
by Jamila Medina
2 poems
by Edel Morales
3 poems
by Alex Pausides
How Lucky They Are, The Normal Ones
by Roberto Fernandez Retamar
A Gust Disperses the Limits of Home
by Soleida Ríos
3 poems
by Mirta Yáñez
Frogpondia
2 poems
by Pierre Bernet
translated by Carmen Laura Contreras, Anne James, and Yma Johnson
Pierre Bernet Ferrand was born in Guantánamo, Cuba in 1950, and now lives in Havana. A poet and painter, he graduated the University of Havana in 1978. He is a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), a founding member of the Organizing Committee of the International Poetry Festival of Havana, and the World Writers Net in Spanish (Remes). He has published seven poetry collections in Cuba, Argentina, México and Spain, and has work in over 20 anthologies and journals in Cuba, Argentina, Canada, Italy, Slovenia, Peru and Spain, among others. His poems have been translated into Arabic, Catalan, Slovenian, French, English, Italian and Croatian. As a painter, he has participated nearly 80 international exhibitions. His work can be found in museum collections, cultural and private institutions. He is the site coordinator for “Lecturas Compartidas/Shared Readings” at the International Book Fair of Havana as well as the “South Literary Circle” on the first Friday of every month.

Anne James has edited and solicited work for Ploughshares, St. Petersburg Review and Zymbol, the latter of which she founded in 2012. She also served as Treasurer of the New England Poetry Club from 2012-2016. She now works as a freelance editor, literary agent, translator and publishing consultant. She can be reached at annejjames@gmail.com.

Laura Contreras was born in Cuban in 1995 and is currently pursuing undergraduate degrees in history and Chinese at Havana University. In 2017, she conducted tours for Chinese and Costa Rican visitors to Cuba. Contreras worked as an English-Spanish translator for UNEAC at the International Poetry Festival of Havana, also in 2017. She was employed as a Chinese-Spanish translator in a Cuban Factory for a company based in Shanghai in 2018. Contreras currently works as a private Spanish tutor and teacher.

Yma Johnson is a first generation Sierra Leonean immigrant who began her writing career in 1996 as a journalist in Puerto Rico. She has written articles on topics ranging from the criminalization of the mentally ill to Japanese swordsmanship. She is a master’s candidate in creative writing at Eastern Michigan University where she taught rhetoric and composition. She also taught a poetry at a women's prison. Yma won 1st place in the 2012 Current Magazine Fiction and Poetry Contest as well as an honorable mention from 2014 Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction Contest. Her work has appeared in Cosmonauts Avenue, the St. Petersburg Review, The Encyclopedia Project Vol. 3, an anthology of experimental literature. Her fiction was also anthologized in, “Cthulhu Lies Dreaming,” short story collection of works inspired by H.P. Lovecraft.

Guardian Angel

Route Sheet

Guardian Angel

I’m a reservoir overflowing with noble sensations unstoppable warrior against those who want to transform them into a bonfire instead of a goldsmith’s flame. I want to be light not skulking ascents toward darkness bird in erratic flight. My mother was a wise person she knew how to find fertile seed to plant it harvest the fruits. From her teachings I filled my well adding a bit of honey to spread upon my soul. She is far away now but when I sleep I can feel her open the bedroom door halfway silently watching over me. A flower between her hands. When I wake up I hold the sensation of her presence a pair of eyes at the moment of parting fixed on my gaze and they will not close because somewhere they wait to guide me when I begin the longest of my journeys. Then I will carry with me the well the flower that she would bring to my room on sleepless nights.

Route Sheet

Where did the thirst for knowing begin at the time of the primogenial germinations? What second might spell the zero hour the end, if it came? My inquietudes don’t find clarity and I want to write everything leave every worry in order because maybe in another century somebody will need answers. He will ask what we did for ourselves for those who aren’t among us anymore for many who will be, like him. When many years have passed when the upright was perhaps upside down he will dig with magnifying glasses through the maps that we’ve drawn looking for our clues the right coordinates to rebuild a history to which he wasn’t a witness.
Pierre Bernet Ferrand was born in Guantánamo, Cuba in 1950, and now lives in Havana. A poet and painter, he graduated the University of Havana in 1978. He is a member of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba (UNEAC), a founding member of the Organizing Committee of the International Poetry Festival of Havana, and the World Writers Net in Spanish (Remes). He has published seven poetry collections in Cuba, Argentina, México and Spain, and has work in over 20 anthologies and journals in Cuba, Argentina, Canada, Italy, Slovenia, Peru and Spain, among others. His poems have been translated into Arabic, Catalan, Slovenian, French, English, Italian and Croatian. As a painter, he has participated nearly 80 international exhibitions. His work can be found in museum collections, cultural and private institutions. He is the site coordinator for “Lecturas Compartidas/Shared Readings” at the International Book Fair of Havana as well as the “South Literary Circle” on the first Friday of every month.

Anne James has edited and solicited work for Ploughshares, St. Petersburg Review and Zymbol, the latter of which she founded in 2012. She also served as Treasurer of the New England Poetry Club from 2012-2016. She now works as a freelance editor, literary agent, translator and publishing consultant. She can be reached at annejjames@gmail.com.

Laura Contreras was born in Cuban in 1995 and is currently pursuing undergraduate degrees in history and Chinese at Havana University. In 2017, she conducted tours for Chinese and Costa Rican visitors to Cuba. Contreras worked as an English-Spanish translator for UNEAC at the International Poetry Festival of Havana, also in 2017. She was employed as a Chinese-Spanish translator in a Cuban Factory for a company based in Shanghai in 2018. Contreras currently works as a private Spanish tutor and teacher.

Yma Johnson is a first generation Sierra Leonean immigrant who began her writing career in 1996 as a journalist in Puerto Rico. She has written articles on topics ranging from the criminalization of the mentally ill to Japanese swordsmanship. She is a master’s candidate in creative writing at Eastern Michigan University where she taught rhetoric and composition. She also taught a poetry at a women's prison. Yma won 1st place in the 2012 Current Magazine Fiction and Poetry Contest as well as an honorable mention from 2014 Glimmer Train's Very Short Fiction Contest. Her work has appeared in Cosmonauts Avenue, the St. Petersburg Review, The Encyclopedia Project Vol. 3, an anthology of experimental literature. Her fiction was also anthologized in, “Cthulhu Lies Dreaming,” short story collection of works inspired by H.P. Lovecraft.