- "Siete Veces Verso", Seven Times Verse Night of Poetry Reading, Exedra Books, October 2, 2008. -


According to William J. Schroer, "generation x" is comprised by those born between 1966 to 1976 and "generation y" by those born between 1977 and 1994.

Nonetheless, the parameters are not even clear for Generation X, for some people locate it between 1961 and 1981, whilst others do between 1965 and 1984, and for Generation Y the sorting is even harder because it is still fresh cement, not dried to be studied in firm.

I consider and share with my fellow writer José Luis Rodríguez Pittí (born 1971) that those of us who were born in the '70`s and at the beginning of the '80`s specifically in Panama, are linked and separated by attitudes towards life, assumed by some of us and rejected by some others, the violent break-up with the past in some cases, measured suggestion and steady action to create something new in others.

¿What this is all about and why these considerations?

The night of October 2, 2008, a group of poets born between 1971 and 1987 gathered all together at EXEDRA BOOKS, Panama City, for a Poetry Reading. Could you say "x" or "y"? For me just poets, that only, poets!

Under the guiding hand of our host and moderator Annabel Miguelena, we all sat at the table, Gorka Lasa Tribaldos, Salvador Medina Barahona, Javier Romero, Magdalena Camargo Lemieszek and the one reporting here, Edilberto González Trejos.

What I saw that night was an amazed audience, poets of all ages, artists and simple readers, they could do magic and they did join the magic.

Salvador Medina Barahona (born 1973) opened the night with his passion for the beauty of the word, the depth of revelation and the intensity of the living experience, to the point of a cutting edge, with minimalist poems, enjoyable ones, quite sensitive verses, but above all things powerful lines.

Gorka Lasa (born 1972) headed for the epic, A History of this Isthmian Soil, with flow, tempo, heat and color, he alone filled the Room with his Voice of Thunder, until closing with A Vision, A Claim against the One-Eyed King.

Javier Romero (born 1983) dove into the labyrinthical meditations of his Book of Poetry, he delved deep in the onirical world, his scientific cosmogony, until reaching to a revealing Ars Poetica.

Madzia (born 1987)(Thus we call Magdalena), feminine voice in the Room, attacked us with her sweetness, but also with her pain, of his Poetry Book winner of the "Gustavo Batista Cedeño" 2008 Award, she read jewels with a touch of "Parisien" Jazz.

The man writing this note (born 1971), shown pieces of a nameless Poetry Book, between mining, dusks and the link between "Telluric" and the dusks, "De Vigilia". My heart was beating so fast, Poetry took hold of us all.

I have had the privilege to share with Gorka, Salvador and Javier this year, toasts and the reading of our favorite poets, from Chuchú Martínez to Maya Angelou, as well as Kerouac, Vinicius, T.S. Eliot, Ungaretti and many others.

José Luis and Annabel (born 1984), they have been part of these informal poetic get-togethers, so has been Carlos Wynter (born 1971).

We had seen and listened to Madzia in May at "La Novena" and then at Anita Villalaz Theater, her musical voice, multiplied "n" times that night.

We did miss Eyra Harbar (born 1972) and Sofía Santim (born 1982), who could not be there for reasons beyond their will.

As a conclusion for that night of poetry, I must say that there are high points in the Panamanian Poetry, that one written by those born from 1970 on, f.i., Porfirio Salazar (1970), Javier Alvarado (1982), Lucy Chau (1971) and the poets in the poetry reading night, improving each one, day by day.

Lucy and Javier were there in the Room, Porfirio talked to me and gave his excuses.

¡Panamanian Poetry is alive! A Poetry deeply rooted in this land and elevated, lifted to the Universal Heights

(In the picture From left to right: Carlos Wynter, Edilberto González-Trejos, Salvador Medina, Gorka Lasa & José Luis Rodríguez-Pittí)

October 2008
Edilberto González-Trejos