There is a light that certain days give us, a glow that remains beyond time. That's how I feel about those unforgettable days of celebrating Poetry with the II Edition of the Verses, Volcanoes and Wind Festival that took place last week. And now that the fatigue has subsided and the poets have returned to their homes, leaving a deeper silence in our Arrecife, I feel happy for the time shared and I start looking for the words to tell a small part of what we experienced.
This new edition of the Verses, Volcanoes and Wind Poetry Festival brought together a constellation of voices from different parts of the islands, the Peninsula and some from a little further away —Teca Barreiro Llorente, Felicidad Batista, Berbel, Andrea Bernal, Iván Cabrera Cartaya, María Callealta, María Carretero, Manuel Concepción, Domingo Corujo, Fuensanta De la Cruz, Isabel Expósito Morales, Olivia Falcón, Inma Flores, Loli Gea, Guacimara Hernández, Carmen Herrera Castro, Benita López Peñate, Salvadora Martel Lima, Rubén Mettini, Josefa Molina, Isabel Montero, Elena Padrón Morales, Miren Palacios, Lucía Pastor Dueñas, Tere Perera, Héctor Rodríguez Riverol, Nacho Romero, Shaila Romero Perera, Yolanda Ruano, Elisa Rueda, Pedro Ruiz Hidalgo, Jose Javier Rus Cano, Valentina Sagredo, Carmen Salas del Río, Maruja Salgado, Purificación Santana, Manuel Tabares, and Mar Zeraus— whose words shaped a poetic landscape that resonated in every corner of Arrecife.
On Friday, June 20, the islet of Fermina welcomed us with a recital facing the sea. Ascensión Toledo, Minister of Education of the Cabildo, and Mercedes Minguela, director of the festival, inaugurated the day that unfolded verses born from the island, the volcanoes and the wind. The soprano Judit Pezoa and the pianist Elías Romero, in collaboration with the Classical Orchestra of Lanzarote and its manager, Roberto Fuentes, elevated that afternoon the emotion with their music towards the heights.
On Saturday 21, Nacho Romero, biologist and poet, guided us on a historical and poetic tour of the center of Arrecife, starting at the Charco de San Ginés. There, the words intertwined with the stone, the sea and the sea breeze, building an intimate dialogue with the landscape.
In the afternoon, at the CIC El Almacén, I had the honor of dialoguing with Mercedes Minguela with Yolanda Castaño, National Poetry Prize 2023. Her Galician sensibility, her deep exploration of memory, body and word, reminded us that poetry is as delicate and resistant as the half-moon stone walls that protect the vines in La Geria. That perfect metaphor for the patient craft of building verses with dedication. Yolanda's naturalness, her luminous and heartfelt voice, moved us with the reading of some poems from her book Materia. Just days before, Yolanda Ruano and I had explored with her the landscape of La Geria, that fascinating place of stone, sun and vine that beats with the same tenacity as poetry.
The recital in El Almacén brought together that afternoon extraordinary voices —Berbel, Isabel Expósito Morales, Fuensanta de la Cruz, Mar Zeraus, Iván Cabrera Cartaya and María Carretero— that wove an atmosphere enriched by the diversity of accents and sensibilities.
For its part, the morning of Sunday 22 took us to the Curbelo-Santana Foundation, where Estefanía Camejo and Rufina Santana themselves generously opened the family's studios, sharing with us the magic of their creative process.
The festival concluded at the Agustín de la Hoz House of Culture in Arrecife with “Street Verses”, a participatory performance that culminated with the magical reading of some verses by Cecilia Domínguez Luis and Saulo Torón about the sea in Canarian silbo, by some members of the Pueblo Maho Cultural Association. A closing that evoked the living force of local culture and the open dialogue with poetry.
Poetry, like the volcano, keeps within it a silent, immeasurable fire, which is only revealed when it opens in the collective voice of those who celebrate it. Although the poets have left, their voices resonate in the streets and in the wind of Arrecife. They resonate among <