Lee este poema en español aquí.
"I Have" by Guillermo Bowie
Nicolas Guillen
The national poet of Cuba
One day wrote the poem
“I Have”
And do you know good reader
What he meant in “I Have”
There is a building in Portland, Oregon
A building that I used to walk by
So many times as an undergraduate
On my way to work as a bookseller
The building is called the Oregon Historical Society
Oregon like Maryland and Minnesota, Oklahoma and Michigan has a Historical Society
So many times as an undergraduate
I walked by this large alienating structure
In the neighborhood downtown where I worked selling books
I left Portland, Oregon for eleven years
And when I came back
A public librarian one day
Directed me to the Oregon Historical Society Library
And there in the pages of what had been just another series of alienating experiences
Image Description: A dimly lit bookshop pictured from outside the open door. Geometric lights illuminate the space. The shelves are made of old wood.
Credit: Viktoriia Kondratiuk / Pexels
There in the Oregon Historical Society collection was the Portland newspaper that published
While I was away in New York
My poem titled “Zaher Was A Radical”
Here, good reader, was the translation of Nicolas Guillen’s poem “I Have”, the preservation of the
newspaper that had published it in the Oregon Historical Society
About the Author
Guillermo Bowie is a Portland, Oregon based writer. In 2025 he is published in Maryland Literary Review, Maryland’s Academy Of The Heart And Mind, Grey Sparrow Journal, Literary Yard, The Gorko Gazette, Pulsebeat Poetry Journal, Children, Churches, And Daddies, Book Of Matches, Fowl Feathered Review, The Argyle Literary Magazine…
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