«If there is no stage in the square, we read the poems at ground level»

He explained that he is from Leon, from Veguellina de Órbigo, that he has lived in Mallorca since 1982, that he shares his life with the poet Germán Terrón Fuentes, that they are part of a fire-related cooperative. she identified and she had never read poetry. “I didn’t get it, even though my partner wrote it,” he admits despite himself. Until one day I started writing. It was poetry from my soul, sincere poetry. If you ask me to write you a poem, I will say that I do not know, that I do not understand, but I want to say that I will write to you what goes through my mind. Yes, because by doing so, it’s like I’m cleaning your insides. I made my first posts on my Facebook wall and continued to write as they liked it, I have published three poetry books to date: Versos despeinados y sin maquillar, Círculo Rojo (September 2017), Me Without You, Tarqus editorial (May 2019) and Vuelve querida loca, editorial Los Libros del Mississippi (January 2022)».

Who reads poetry today, immersed in a world as materialistic and destructive as the one in which we are forced to live… where are the shelves with poetry books? “Well, look – replies Felicity – when you enter the world of poetry, you realize that there are more people who like her than you realize. On the one hand, there are poets, on the other hand, we are many. Besides reading poems, it occurred to me and I to take our books to towns where we would exhibit and sell them.Yes, that’s how ‘Poesía de pueblo en pueblo’ was born.

we got one camper van, we conditioned it to live in it, and with that we started visiting small towns in Spain with 500 to 1,000 inhabitants. For this, we contacted the municipalities, presented their idea, asked them to give us one of their most symbolic squares for a few hours only that day, put a chair in it and give it to us. with a power outlet for connecting equipment. No stage? It didn’t matter. We read poems at ground level. While Amarela, the singer-songwriter who almost always accompanied us, sang her own songs, Germán and I would read them. Naturally, we looked for a place to spend the night in Amarela because, as I said, only two people can do it in the minibus. And what happened during the action…? Well, to mark the reading order, we gave the list of poems to be read to the public. And we made them participate as an open mic, we had ten or twelve of the participants read as many small poems as possible… It would be great if we could sell the books as well. But the important thing is that you meet people and introduce poetry among them, so whether you like it or not, if 80-40 people attended the event, the next day, of course! that all the people are talking about him.”

sometimes they call

However, since foundations like Miguel Hernández’s hire them, they may not be the ones looking for town halls in the squares to allow them to recite their poetry.

“Miguel Hernández naturally paid us to read his poems in various places in Jaén. While Amarela was interpreting the poems of the poet she composed, we took his poems from town to town and recited our own lines at the same time. They also hired us from Vitoria for the event’a hundred poets in mayWe toured together four towns in the province of Álava, which we will be doing again next year.
Since such events are usually held in good weather, for example in winter, they started what they call ‘A la Carte Poetry’, which is the same thing they did in the square, but in a closed place over time. “Next 5th December we are leaving by plane to do ‘Poesía à la carte’ in A Coruña, Pontevedra, Vigo and Santiago, where we will collaborate to have local singer-songwriters accompany us in our performances.”
They are also planning to go to Menorca by the end of the year where they hold two events.

As for Mallorca, “We haven’t done anything about ‘City to Town Poetry’ yet, but I’m sure we’ll find a way to do it.” The idea of ​​traveling around Spain by reading verses became a reality as of 2017, which means they found themselves on their way with COVID. What happened…? “Well, except for the two months that the quarantine lasts and we continue to work, always abiding by the health regulations imposed by the governments, sometimes we realize that we have to finish before the curfew, otherwise we cannot continue the trip, or the town where we had to recite Poetry, the performance was limited within our itinerary. But… well, all this time we’ve defended ourselves, we haven’t stopped walking or moving. Come on, we can’t complain.”

Finally, as an alternative to these trips that take the poems to the towns of Spain, we will say that Felicidad accompanies him at the piano with Maite Albores and Alejandra Catalán, or Femiversas, who are the same. She reads poems in Mallorca, “but indoors, the experience is very positive.”