Editor’s Choice

Francisco X. Alarcon (Mexico/USA)

 

Deep Song

 

after the passage of so many legal measures against undocumented  workers -mostly Mexicans and Central Americans-  throughout the U.S.

 

 

why do what papers you can

you spit does the Sun deny me

on my face? ever need? an education

 

what harm what crime blame

can I ever have dreams me for

do to you now become? everything

 

by having what law build

a brown denies the fruit another Berlin

soul? of my labor? Wall

how come why then but you

you throw do you steal never will

me out my calm? be able ever

 

after does my grief to extinguish

I’ve served give you this fire

you dinner any joy? this struggle

 

and folded does my poverty for life

the last make you burning

white sheets? richer? in my heart

 

 

Night

 

a cup of black

coffee spilled over

the Earth’s tablecloth

 

Lightning

 

sky

rooting

on the land

 

a tree

of light

in the dark

 

lasting

an instant

an eternity

 

announcing

a celestial

drumming

 

Leaf

 

the wind blew around

but the lone leaf on the tree

did not kiss the ground

 

Poetic Manifesto

 

each poem

is an act of faith

 

in the power

of the Word

 

a flower passed

hand to hand

 

and rooted

in the heart

 

a prayer/chant

lightning the night

 

a song amidst

so much noise

 

a murmur

of tree branches

 

at the very edge

of the big desert

 

breaking down

the borders of despair

 

sowing the seeds

of renewed hope

 

each poem is

a call for action

 

is saying”yes”

to the rule of”no”

 

a defiance

to social silence

 

building trust

in response to fear

 

a testimony

of the human soul

 

 

recognizing

that in spite all

 

our differences

and peculiarities

 

we all breathe

love and dream

 

celebrate and suffer

under the same one Sun

 

Summer Solstice

June 21, 2011

 

 

Let Us Be Gandhi

 

let us be Gandhi

artin Luther King Jr.

Nelson Mandela

 

bearers of peace

reason, tolerance, good will

not hatred, anger

 

let us never be

bullets but true healing hands

pressing bleeding wounds

 

run away from lions

and eagles, always content

to be butterflies-

 

from complete despair

sorrow, fear, pain, let us draw

new joy, trust, faith, hope

 

January 9, 2011

Francisco X. Alarcon (Mexico/USA). Chicano poet and educator, was born in Los Angeles, California. He is the author of ten volumes of poetry. His book of bilingual poetry for children, Animal Poems of the Iguazu / Animalario del Iguazu (Children’s Book Press 2008), was selected as a Notable Book for a Global Society by the International Reading Association, and as an Americas Awards Commended Title by the Consortium of Latin American Studies Programs. His bilingual book titled Poems to Dream Together / Poemas para sonar juntos, was published by Lee & Low Books, New York in Spring 2005, and was awarded the 2006 Jane Addams Honor Book Award. His bilingual book for children, Laughing Tomatoes and Other Spring Poems / Jitomates risuenos y otros poemas de primavera (Children’s Book Press, 1997) was awarded the 1997 Pura Belpre Honor Award by the American Library Association and the National Parenting Publications Gold Medal. He also received the 2000 Pura Belpre Honor Award for his second book of bilingual poems

 

Previously published in kritya old issues

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