The luxury of the minimal: poetry by José Alcaraz

José Alcaraz’s poems distrust and tell everything there is to say about its author; that is, a non specific poetical universality. Perhaps that’s why they effortlessly mix themes, allusions, and motifs. The sensory enters into intimacy, strolls through it, and lingers on the details (more to rest than to scrutinize them). Poetry, often, of beautiful neglect—stingy with the bare minimum, without garments or artifacts. Also, his poetry is a kind of quiet resistance to everything. No healing verses, just the honesty of someone who shares.

Poetry

The Handkerchief

As children, in that game we used to grab 

the handkerchief and run away, fleeing 

from a shadow that chased after us. 

How terrible, or how beautiful it is 

to realize now that the handkerchief was life, 

that the game was drifting from childhood. 

You’ll remember how, sometimes, running so fast, 

we’d snatch at that cloth and miss — 

but still we galloped on, undeterred. 

Tell me —still amid the cheering, 

still among the shouting and the claps— 

tell me you’ve never once had doubts, 

that you don’t look at your hands the way I do.

From Vino para los náufragos

I sense the cracks this house will have, 

I feel them pulsing in me like wounds. 

The dampness in my eyes makes death’s 

bones ache.

From El mar en las cenizas

Spilled Wine

To be suddenly happy 

in the middle of life, 

how much it resembles wine 

spilled on the table, 

lifted with fingers 

to the forehead as a sign 

of fortune amid laughter, 

exclamations, the words 

“it’s nothing, really,” 

while the red stain 

soaks into the whiteness, 

keeps on spreading.

From Las demoras

I blow upon your eyes to cleanse them

of the dust into which we

are not yet turned.

All that is invisible and hurts us,

maybe the phantom limb

of what we might have been?

Look at me now and I will feel you

like a sky that flies

toward the birds.

From El mar en las cenizas

Portrait: Irene Rus

Author profile

José Alcaraz (Cartagena, Spain, 1983) is the author of several poetry collections, including Las demoras (Comares, 2023, La Veleta series), El mar en las cenizas (Rialp, 2019, runner-up for the Adonáis Prize), Vino para los náufragos (Alhulia, 2017, Antonio Gala Prize), and Edición anotada de la tristeza (Pre-Textos, 2013, RNE Young Poetry Prize).

His poetry chapbooks include La tabla del uno (Injuve, 2012) and Un sí a nada (adminimum, 2015). In 2016, he was featured by José Luis Morante in the anthology of young Spanish poets Re-generación (Valparaíso Ediciones).

From 2016 to 2018, he led the Libreta Mandarache writing workshop, part of the Mandarache Prize educational project. In 2014, he founded the independent publishing house Balduque, where he worked until 2024. That same year, he launched a new publishing venture, La Pipa de Kif, which he currently directs.

He holds a degree in Spanish Philology and also works as a high school teacher of Spanish Language and Literature.