The poet Francisco Basallote He was born in Vejer de la Frontera –Cádiz– in 1941 and died on July 15, 2015. He was a building surveyor and civil servant in the Regional Ministry of Education. He was a founding member of the Society of Friends of the Country from his hometown. For twelve years he was executive vice president of the Building Engineers Foundationwhere he developed a remarkable cultural responsibility. He created the poetry collection Alarife and the prose one Alice.
Basallote was a solitary poet, in the sense, as he himself said, of belonging to "secret poetry," outside of literary circles. He is the author of an extensive literary oeuvre, with more than fifty books published, with which he has won important awards and recognitions. I remember that every time he sent me a book, it almost always had some kind of award behind it. I've reviewed many of his books.
Paco Basallote always struck me as an affable, down-to-earth, and approachable man, and in my case, I have nothing but words of gratitude for him, as he supported me in several initiatives such as the publication of books about Javier Salvago y Rafael PorlánMy words of remembrance and friendship go out to him, in his memory, as well as to his family.
It begins with the book Air frontier –Vejer, 1988–, whose title comes from a poem by Dionisio Ridruejo Dedicated to that beautiful town in Cádiz. Here, the architecture and geology of Vejer serve as the pretext or theme of its own biography:
How easy it ispeñarse
Abandoned to the call of Earth,
like a dream
yoked to its inescapable end.
What better vertigo
that blind obedience
to this chasm,
open rock
on suggestive lips,
like a thirsty vortex
than in the west
extinguishes flashes
in exact victory
of destiny.
How easy,
roll or die
in our own abyss.
Here we can see a video about the beautiful town of Vejer de la Frontera, with images of it and commentary on the verses dedicated to it:
One of the central themes in his works is time. Fragments and destruction rate –La Cuerda del Arco, Sevilla, 1991–, achieves verses like these that close «Plenitud» –p. 3–:
Only the eternal
exhales such fullness
in an instant.
But, given the nature of our magazine, we are interested in focusing on his work closest to the flamenco. In Like summer snow. Haikus –Seville, Art Biennial FlamencoIn 2002, Basallote found in the haiku—a stanza of Japanese origin, revived by the Generation of '27, consisting of three lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively, without rhyme—a magnificent reference point, ideal for expressing his vision of poetry: syllabic synthesis and a strong sense of nature and the visual. It is not a flamenco stanza, although it bears certain similarities to the seguidilla, nor does the book have a flamenco imprint, since the very absence of rhyme in the haiku makes comparison difficult. Nevertheless, a bouquet of haiku «flamenco"We can contribute, even if only through its thematic or emotional background:"
For freedom,
only for her
the goldfinch sings.
The waves are coming,
with them your memory
But they leave.
In your bay,
lost the course,
I would like to anchor.
Your name is there
In Myself palo besana
as a flag.
Like bright stars,
in the middle of the seas,
your black eyes.
Exceptionally, as in the latter, there is assonant rhyme, which brings it closer to the lyric poetry of flamenco.
In this video, we can listen to and enjoy some of these verses accompanied by beautiful watercolors and background music. Gonzalo Díaz-Arbolí's website, May 2028.
Fortunately, his work and significance have been recovered by the professor Jesus Cardenas –Alcalá de Guadaíra, 1973– in a book, an essay dedicated to the poet. In Pilgrim of Light. Space and Time in the Work of Francisco Basallote (1988-2015) He studies poetic and pictorial creation—for he is a watercolorist of great sensitivity—during that period. The blurb, in its blurb, brings us closer to a humanist poet, reflective and profound. In addition to the in-depth analysis, the book concludes with an epilogue of heartfelt messages—poems and critical essays by friends and critics, among whom I have the honor and pleasure of being included—and a gallery of images with photographs and a selection of Basallote's watercolors.
Specifically, the chapter "La soleá. Las seguidillas" –pp. 133-134– studies the use made of the soleá stanza, as previously indicated, by authors such as Lorca, Villalon, Manuel Machado, Rafael MontesinosOr, more currently, he says, José Luis Blanco Garza or the parade Juan Peña –I have written reviews of both of their books of flamenco lyrics–.
Cárdenas says that the poet seeks in the soleá "the nectar of poetry, true poetry" with "verses brimming with emotion, mystery, and profound meaning," with themes such as "love, solitude, the passage of time, and the uncertainty of death." He points to some examples, such as this one: In the Hills of Bashir:
When I leave I would like
within your white walls
to be the shadow of your battlements.
Let's see, with editing and voiceover by Gonzalo Díaz ArbolíThese images of his hometown, combined with the beauty of his verses:
De Uninhabited time, from 2006, the poem «Soleá»:
The day I leave
only the shadow will remain
of some of my words.
Also in Raindrops –2012– there are some examples:
In the eyes of the moon
I have discovered a tear
that leaves the night in darkness.
Or, to conclude, in the poem "Serranía" by Nomad's Notebooks –2012– we see the stanza of the seguidilla in the poem dedicated to Setenil de las Bodegas –Cádiz–:
Such a marvel,
seven times fenced
in their cellars
enjoyed seven times.
As you can see, an interesting poet, with some poems that are close to our own. flamenco And now, with this study by Jesús Cárdenas, it appears renewed, alive, present. ♦
→ Jesús Cárdenas, Pilgrim of Light. Space and Time in the Work of Francisco Basallote (1988-2015), Seville, Ediciones En Huida, 2025.
