Robert Creeley spent some time in the apartments of La Baronía. His stay was short, although it marked him deeply, as we can see in the poem «Paul».
PAUL
I'll never forgive myself for the
violence propelled me at sad Paul
Blackburn, pushed in turn by both
our hopeless wives who were spitting
venom at one another in the heaven
we'd got ourselves to, Mallorca, mid-fifties,
where one could live for peanuts while
writing great works and looking at the
constant blue sea, etc. Why did I fight such
surrogate battles of existence with such
a specific friend as he was for sure?
Our first meeting NYC 1950 we talked two
and a half days straight without leaving the
apartment. He knew Auden and Yeats
by heart and had begun on Pound's lead
translating the Provençal poets, and was
studying with Moses Hadas at NYU. How
sweet this thoughtful beleaguered vulnerable
person whose childhood was full of New
England abusive confusion, his mother the too
often absent poet, Frances Frost! I wish
he were here now, we could go on talking,
I'd have company of my own age in this
drab burned out trashed dump we call the
phenomenal world where he once walked
the wondrous earth and knew its pleasures.
The Collected Poems of Robert Creeley 1976 – 1995, 2006
(Arlington, Massachussets, Estados Unidos, 1926 – Odessa, Texas, Estados Unidos, 2005). Robert Creeley devoted his life to writing poetry and prose and to publishing, as well as teaching at different universities. He was associated with the Black Mountain group, in turn associated with Black Mountain College in North Carolina. Through his writing, he contributed to the renewal of post-war poetry in the United States.
Creeley lived in Mallorca from 1952 to 1955, first in Banyalbufar, staying for a while in an apartment in La Baronia before moving to La Bonanova in Palma. In Mallorca, he founded Divers Press, which published important works of American literature, and he also published and edited Black Mountain Review (1954-1957).
His brief stay on the island had a profound influence on him. Mallorca was the perfect refuge, where he could devote himself fully to his work and to art. His beloved island is reflected in The Island and also in the publication Written in Mallorca: Poems and Stories, a collection of poems written during his stay in Mallorca.
Banyalbufar nestles amid hillside terraces, framed by the scenery of the Tramuntana mountains. It was once an estate that stretched across almost the entire valley.
La Baronia was a 17th century ancestral home, made up of dwellings, a courtyard, winery and defensive tower. Some of its buildings are now used as a hotel, while the other part now contains private homes and the courtyard is used to hold different cultural activities.
La Baronia’s different buildings are considered to be the main nucleus of the feudal estate that ruled Banyalbufar following the island’s Christian conquest. The house was handed down from one generation to another through to the 20th century, when it was put on sale and divided into different properties.
