Poet from Liverpool and other Cuban poems (The)

Author Marino Wilson Jay
Jay's poetry unpicks various subjects: religion, sexuality, the Holocaust or European cultural hegemony. It contains no paeans to the revolution, but Jay's stature in Cuba says much about a society prepared to ask difficult questions of itself. Insight into Cuba beyond the clichés.
Publisher: Mango Publishing | ISBN no: 978 1 902294186 | Year: 2007

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Marino Wilson Jay is an important figure in contemporary Cuban writing both as a questioning poet and as a president of UNEAC in Santiago de Cuba. Although well travelled his work has a strong sense of his Santiagueran spirit throughout - it is ‘rebelde’ to the heart, questioning and re-assessing in its constant avoidance of complacent ‘truths’ or hollow grandeur. Even his homage’s - to Lennon (the eponymous Poet from Liverpool) - Louis Armstrong, Shakespeare, Sherlock Holmes – and finally to his home of Santiago – are edgy and uneasy.

His work presents the essential dilemma of what it is to be an educated Cuban especially one born outside of the capital. Well read, thoughtful, mixed up, sensual, frustrated, confused and often bitter. Unlike Nicolas Guillen who found cause and had pressing historical reasons to celebrate Cuban identity, Wilson Jay’s starkly honest voice attempts to unpick the fabric of whatever subject he handles: religious faith, home, sexual passion, the holocaust or European cultural hegemony.

This is not an easy or enjoyable read. It contains no simple paeans to the achievements of the revolution. However, Wilson Jay’s stature in Cuba says much about a society aware and ready to ask difficult questions both of itself and those who would attack it.  For this reason alone this is an essential collection and a vitally important work for anyone interested in the Cuba beyond the clichés.

David Willetts