karmelo c. iribarren... a familiar stranger
I didn't know him as a poet. As far as I knew, he was a guy who worked on the other side of the bar in that legendary pub Akerbeltz in the upper part of the port in Donostia. When he wasn't in the bar, I would see him walking around the streets of the old quarter. He was just one of those dozens of familiar strangers you cross paths with every day. Anyway, the thing is I discovered his name in a book. The cover of the book caught my attention and I picked up the that beautiful book of poetry called "la ciudad" (the city). And I don't remember which poem I read first but I liked it and I bought the book. I don't remember when I actually realised that the author of the book and the port pub barman were one and the same.
All of a sudden, that familiar stranger's poems took on a new and closer dimension. Not because he had published a book. Anybody can do that nowadays. No, it was because the stories he told in form of poems were filled with emotion, irony and life. The familiar stranger went from barman to poet.
I have been in his company once or twice. On each occasion it has been with other people in the midst of general conversation and debate. I based a comic on one of his poems for an issue of The Balde once but I didn't have the courage to go to the bar and show it to him. A writer friend in common did it. And I still cannot pluck up the courage to interview him this time around.
He gave up the job in the bar a few years back but I still see him in the street every now and again. There he'd be holding his daughter's hand, with his wife or just simply walking around on his own but he's still a familiar stranger to me. And I like that feeling. The feeling when somebody you admire is there in front of you and yet they do not know they are admired (that's why I haven't signed this article). And, what the hell! I get the feeling he likes it too. He doesn't even try. This familiar stranger doesn't try to be an "accursed" marginalized writer, and he has an awful lot more life experience under his belt than those who do try.
Karmelo C. Iribarren. A classic name not very common these days. Karmelo. Spelt with a "K". Going against the flow. Touching a raw nerve perhaps. Because he believes in the right to spell one's name as one sees fit. And this is followed by the mysterious powerful "Cdot" A homage to the "C" sacrificed in the change form Carmelo to Karmelo perhaps, just to make sure that the "K" doesn't get carried away with itself... Who knows? I couldn't think of a more appropriate name than Karmelo C. Iribarren for an exbarman and contemporary poet.
All of a sudden, that familiar stranger's poems took on a new and closer dimension. Not because he had published a book. Anybody can do that nowadays. No, it was because the stories he told in form of poems were filled with emotion, irony and life. The familiar stranger went from barman to poet.
I have been in his company once or twice. On each occasion it has been with other people in the midst of general conversation and debate. I based a comic on one of his poems for an issue of The Balde once but I didn't have the courage to go to the bar and show it to him. A writer friend in common did it. And I still cannot pluck up the courage to interview him this time around.
He gave up the job in the bar a few years back but I still see him in the street every now and again. There he'd be holding his daughter's hand, with his wife or just simply walking around on his own but he's still a familiar stranger to me. And I like that feeling. The feeling when somebody you admire is there in front of you and yet they do not know they are admired (that's why I haven't signed this article). And, what the hell! I get the feeling he likes it too. He doesn't even try. This familiar stranger doesn't try to be an "accursed" marginalized writer, and he has an awful lot more life experience under his belt than those who do try.
Karmelo C. Iribarren. A classic name not very common these days. Karmelo. Spelt with a "K". Going against the flow. Touching a raw nerve perhaps. Because he believes in the right to spell one's name as one sees fit. And this is followed by the mysterious powerful "Cdot" A homage to the "C" sacrificed in the change form Carmelo to Karmelo perhaps, just to make sure that the "K" doesn't get carried away with itself... Who knows? I couldn't think of a more appropriate name than Karmelo C. Iribarren for an exbarman and contemporary poet.
