Gustavo Gac-Artigas Poetry | Prominent American poets

Gustavo Gac-Artigas stands as one of the most compelling poetic voices to emerge from Latin America’s turbulent political history. Born in Santiago, Chile in 1944, his life has been defined by creativity, struggle, displacement, and an unwavering belief in the power of art. His poetry is not merely a form of expression; it is a testimony—an archive of memory, resistance, and humanity.

Gac-Artigas’ early life was shaped by cultural curiosity and artistic exploration. As a young man, he immersed himself in theatre, literature, and political thought, believing passionately that art could be a tool for awakening consciousness. This belief carried him across continents, particularly after the Chilean military coup of 1973. Detained and tortured during the dictatorship, he eventually sought exile abroad. That journey—marked by loss, longing, and rebirth—became the emotional foundation of his poetry.

Gustavo Gac-Artigas

His poems speak in a voice both intimate and universal. They bridge the fragile space between homeland and exile, between memory and the present moment. Gac-Artigas often writes from the perspective of a wanderer who carries his country inside him, as if every heartbeat drums the rhythm of Chile’s landscapes, its people, and its unhealed wounds. His lines are reflective, sorrowful at times, yet always illuminated by hope and human dignity. In his work, pain transforms into art, and silence becomes testimony.

One of the defining qualities of his poetry is its ability to weave personal experience with collective history. He does not write only about himself; he writes about all who have experienced exile—those who have lost homes, families, or identities to political violence. His words therefore function as bridges, connecting individuals across borders, languages, and decades. It is this universality that has led to his poems being translated into numerous languages and celebrated across continents.

In addition to poetry, Gac-Artigas is a novelist, playwright, theatre director, and cultural advocate. His multidisciplinary background enriches his writing with vivid imagery, dramatic pacing, and deep emotional resonance. Even after settling in the United States, he remained committed to preserving Latin American cultural memory and uplifting voices that history tries to silence.

Ultimately, Gustavo Gac-Artigas’ literary legacy lies in his courage to transform suffering into beauty. His life teaches us that exile cannot erase identity, nor can oppression extinguish creativity. Through his poetry, he continues to remind us that art has the power to heal, to resist, and to keep the truth alive.

POEMS
(from deseos/longings/j’aimerais tant 2020,
translated by Andrea G. Labinger)
 
love
there are loves that the wind sweeps away
there are loves that survive storms
there are loves that founder in the violent waters of oblivion
there are loves that survive oblivion
there are loves that return from the world of the dead
to be reborn in eternity
 
there are loves that cross the barriers of the heart
and relive the thrill of seeing the beloved for the first time
 
there are loves that strike in one second
justifying the torment of having lived until that moment
 
my beloved
i love you
 
beyond questions
beyond answers
 
 
how i long to

how i long to be
in your place reading
and not in mine
bleeding to death
 
circular paths

(from hombre de américa/man of the americas, 2022,
translated by Andrea G. Labinger)
 
my feet stopped treading the ground
the ground that wasn’t mine
my lungs stopped breathing the cordillera air
the wall that separated me from the winds of my continent
 
in time my childhood smile disappeared
along with the rag ball i played with in the mud
the mud that wasn’t mine
 
behind me lay the warmth of my beloved’s body
behind me lay blows and caresses
 
they took me by the hand
and showed me the path
 
behind me lay my land
before me, my destiny
my destiny and the fear that paced in my eyes
 
fear of darkness
fear of light
hunger pacing in my gut
and loneliness pacing in my dreams
loneliness, my companion
in this eternal wandering
 
while behind me lay my homeland
the fears of my childhood
a sad expression
a fading caress
along this one-way path
in search of my history
 
i
a man of the americas

 
there are days when i am ashamed to be a man  

 
we should have never strayed from our humanity
but being human we isolated ourselves
we yearned for individuality
i the unequalled
i the exceptional
i the human being
and because we were one we lost the we
we human beings
 
decency got lost as it cloistered itself in the interests of that
i, the human being
 
step by step the rights of the other were diluted
that other
a kind of different human being
so different from me
that other who threatens my interests
my integrity
my development
my future
my past
who even worse
represents a danger to my happiness
 
being human we let ourselves go hazy          
for the feeling of happiness                           
the pursuit of personal happiness
a happiness as different as those who seek it
for some a plate of food
for others a banquet
for some to perpetuate a name
for others to disappear amid the throng         
 
i
the almighty
they
the commoners
 
that i
the human being personified
superior by divine grace
drafted the laws that would govern their environment
a retaining wall where decency would be indecency
my decency
 
i can despise the other
he told himself
and it is acceptable
because i’m me
           
i can trample on the woman
he said
and it is acceptable
because i’m me
                       
i can exploit the other
he said
and it is acceptable
because i’m me
 the benefactor
the higher self
the owner of knowledge
of knowledge and of the stock market
 
the voices of the other protested
 
because i’m me
a woman
they want me to accept outrage         
 
because i’m me
the commoner
they want me to accept hunger
 
because i’m me
the student
they want me to accept their knowledge without questioning it
pseudo-science will grant me the diploma of admissible human being
in the inhuman hierarchy of me the human being
 
because i’m me
the bricklayer
they want me to build towers without looking up
without signing a brick
building and disappearing
is acceptable
in their hierarchy of the human being
 
to which i the human being responded 
it is natural
 
i am invincible
i am the chosen one
i am the administrator
i am the higher self
i am the challenge
i am the one who bestows life and death
 
to those words the witness said to himself
 
as at the beginning of the legend
when we got lost in that me the human being
and we turned our backs on us human beings
 
and sadly added
 
there are days when i am ashamed
to be a man
 
i was born old
 
instead of playing i loved to observe the world
i learned to walk to escape my destiny
caresses awakened my body
blows shielded my feelings
instead of possessing i tried to love
my back bent to write
my back bent to read
my back bent under the weight of other people’s pain
 
i was born old
i tried to transform crying into laughter
when falling i thought twice before getting up
knowing i would fall again
stepping on dangerous ground
 
they tried to teach me safety
and i chose danger
they wanted to standardize me                       
and i preferred difference
 
they wanted to teach me that life is sweet
sweet as honey
sweet as the voice of the beloved
sweet as the wind whistling in my ears
sweet as water running downhill
they wanted to teach me that sweetness was our destiny
and yet i preferred salt
 
the salt that weathers the face
the salt that sprinkled the face of my beloved
the salt that burned in my wounds
the salt of sweat falling from my body
the salt that roamed the desert
mixing with the dust of the dead
 
i was born old
i preferred to know reality
than to be told fairy tales
 
today
an old man
i wait for my death
trying to be the child i never was 
 
 
freedom

(from Confieso que escribo/I Confess That I Write,
2024)
 
when you live
in fear
when you live
without freedom
 
when you are not the master
of your will
 
when another believes he owns
your body
your mind
your voice
your destiny
 
when your world
is reduced to four walls
without a window to look out
upon the world
 
when you’ve been a slave
when you’ve been a political prisoner
when you’ve been the victim of violence and terror
when you’re poor amid riches
 
when human rights are an illusion
when people want to ignore your existence
a single desire occupies your body
the desire to rise up
 
freedom
amigo mío
freedom
amiga mía
dies
in silence
 
it dies when you cannot
shake off submission
 
it dies when you bow your head
like those black-necked swans
in the icy waters of southern chile
or runs aground
on bedloe island
just across from manhattan
 
(translated by Andrea G. Labinger and
Priscilla Gac-Artigas)
 
 
the writer toward the scaffold
 
how i would like to sing to the stars
to the moon
to the fugitive comet that escapes from the sky
 
to fleeting love
to eternal love
to the embrace of a smile
 
to write with a feather from a black-necked swan
to be dragged to the depths of the sea
in immortal embrace with the kraken
to write my verses in indelible squid ink,
           
but living in these tempestuous times
i can’t unstick my gaze from humankind
 
i picked up the pen
and my hand trembled
 
as once again i signed
my death sentence
 
(translated by Andrea G. Labinger)
 

intentions

i write to return
to the country i should never have left
 
the eternal rain on the tin roofs
bathes my heart in my sleep
red flags of my youth
color my desires
 
i write to shake off my nostalgia
to walk again through the woods of my childhood
to listen to the song of the river downstream
to fly along with a condor over the cordillera
 
i write to be reborn in your arms
to feel the caress of the wind on my cheeks
to relive the torment and drive away the pain
 
i write for my people
those i never knew
but whom i embraced from afar
 
those who walked paths unknown to me
the ones where i took my first step
those that they concealed from me to deny me a second step
 
i write about those who cannot walk
i write to learn to fly
i write in my sleepless nights
to die in the distance
and return to you in my dreams
 
(translated by Priscilla Gac-Artigas)
 

ode

i sing to the bleeding feet of those who follow hope into the darién gap
 
i sing to the lost gaze of the women raped on the paths of despair
 
my verse swells in that instant when hope glimmers in the eyes of the dispossessed
my pen dries up in the eternity when we see greed shimmering in the eyes of those who deem themselves owners of hope
 
i lift my song for those who have no master
those who refuse to be owned
the unfortunate, capable of sharing their misfortune
 
i do not sing of beauty
i sing to the grandeur of the soul in misfortune
to the light found in the darkness
to the darkness residing in gold
 
i do not want my poems to reflect society
i want them to penetrate its very entrails
allowing the sap of justice to flood my world
 
i sing to share my pain
my joys
my fears
 
i sing out of necessity
that terrible need to feel human
 
(translated by Priscilla Gac-Artigas)

testimony of love

(from las cadenas de sor juana/sor juana’s fetters/les chaînes de sor juana
2025, translated by Priscilla Gac-Artigas)
 
i loved you and protected you
you loved me and protected me
 
i protected you from the lustful gaze of others
you protected me from the lustful gaze of others
 
i protected you from the traps that life laid out for you
you protected me from the traps that life laid out for me
 
i protected you from those who desired you as a sex toy
you protected me from those who desired me as a sex toy
 
i protected you from the laws of society
those that assigned you a place in this world
those that shackled your mind and your sex
your desires and your body
 
you protected me from the laws of society
those that assigned me a place in this world
those that shackled my mind and my sex
my desires and my body
 
i protected you from being a vessel of flesh and blood
instrument destined to bear my offspring
 
you protected me from being a vessel of flesh and blood
instrument destined to bear your offspring
 
i protected you from your smile and your joy
you protected me from my smile and my joy
 
i erected myself as a protective wall around you
i erected a protective wall around me
to protect myself from you