Osmel’s Book “The Incline”

Jorge Milanes Despaigne

HAVANA TIMES — It was Osmel’s decision to become a poet, a task that implies major challenges. But he says that since people are born into lives that are full of challenges, then in his case he’s not going to give up on what he knows how to do best.

When he was very young he chose the difficult art of creating poetry. He did this with the aim of freeing himself, at least a little, from the anguish and disagreements that life dealt him.

The situation is that Cuba is a country of poets. Wherever you go there’s going to be someone reciting poetry. That’s just the way we are; our island has a poetic soul.

Yesterday he invited me to a poetry session at “La Madriguera,” the Havana headquarters of the Asociacion Hermanos Saiz, where he was going to read part of his work (and I would have to give him my critique).

The poems he read are included in his book La Pendiente (The Incline), which recreates a real geographical accident – the one in which he lives.

Under persistent rain, a number of us attended this poetic gathering to listen to him, in addition to hearing the songs played by a young group of musicians and the verses of three other poets.

Osmel’s poetry maintained us in a state of pleasing surprise for its level communication; for its cleanliness and for the antagonistic love-hate game that was established between him and those around him, between him and his father and other members of the family, in addition to the possible inclusion of the animal world.

This event with his poetry occurred along that incline or slope.

In my opinion, the structures and poetic resources that he uses have allowed him to make an important shift in his work. He has now reached the point of departure that will lead him to success. I hope to one day have La Pendiente in my hands in the form of a published print edition book.