Caribbean eclpse

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Eclipse caribe

La luna plena mulata habanera---
perfumada de jaxmín nocturno---
coqueta enrojece y se esconde----
detrás de su abanico de palma.---

En la feria, los libros despiertan;-

sus hojas aletean y sueltan-------
a volar sus versos.----------------

---------© Rafael Jesús González 2008

Caribean Eclipse

The full Havana moon--------
pefumed with night jasmine--
coquettish blushes & hides---
behind her palm fan.---------

In the fair, the books waken;

their leaves flutter & let------
their verses to fly.------------

----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008

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Full moon of the Year of the Rat 4706

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Tanka of the Full Moon of the Year of the Rat


In the star-rich sky,
a lone gray rat of a cloud
grasps at the full moon,
sweet ball of honey and cheese,
for her Lord of Beginnings.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008





Tanka de la luna del año de la rata


En el cielo rico de estrellas
una nube, rata gris solitaria,
trata de coger la luna plena,
dulce globo de queso y de miel,
para su Señor de los Comienzos.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008



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St. Valentine's Day

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----Mirando las fotografías
-----de Sebastião Salgado
-----el día de San Valentín


Se acostumbra en este día
enviar a los amados
la imagen del corazón,
San Sebastián de las cartas,
atravesado por jaras.

En este matrimonio
del sufrimiento y la belleza
----hay injuria.
En el negro y el blanco desolado
----uno ve rojo.
--------No hay palabras,
sólo el hervir de la sangre
y una desesperación profunda
una gran angustia de piedad
y una gran ansia en el corazón
----por justicia.

Tales son estas tarjetas
----de San Valentín
--------a la Tierra.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008



(Círculo de poesía 9; Roberto Bianchi, director;
aBrace editor, Montevideo, Uruguay 2008;
derechos reservados del autor)







----Seeing the Photographs
------of Sebastiáo Salgado
-----on St. Valentine’s Day



It is customary on this day
to send loved ones
the image of the heart,
St. Sebastian of the cards,
transfixed by arrows.

In this marriage
of suffering & beauty
----there is outrage.
In the stark black & white
----one sees red.
--------There are no words,
only the boiling in the blood
& a deep desperation
a great anguish of pity
& a great yearning in the heart
----for justice.

Such are these Valentine cards
--------to the Earth.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008

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Friendship

Amistad

(del náhuatl)


Son una luz
las puntas rubias y tiernas del maíz;
en la primavera despertamos
a la borla dorada de la espiga
y las pruebas de constancia
en los corazones de amigos
nos engalanan el cuello
con collares de joyas.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008



Friendship

(from the Nahuatl)


It is a light,
the corn's pale & tender ends;
in spring we wake
to the golden tassel of the maize,
& the proofs of constancy
in the hearts of friends
about our necks
jeweled collars place.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008
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Jai Guru Dev

His holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

My guru, my beloved master his holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi died a few days ago on February 5th. Thirty-five years ago I was studying with him in La Antilla, Spain to become a teacher of Transcendental Meditation; it was at that time that I wrote 'Para la iniciación de un maestro/For the Initiation of a Teacher' for a friend studying there with me. Those years, the Vietnam War terminating and hope for peace alive in our hearts, were luminous years for me, lit by the light of a great seer, the being who spoke the most truth with the most lucidity, the most depth and width whom I have ever known. An enlightened being, his light glows in the world yet.

Jai, jai Guru Dev

-----Para la iniciación de un maestro

----------------------(al modo Nahua)


Adórnate el pecho con el caracol marino,
----dueño de las palabras sacras,
----sacerdote de la luna de obsidiana clara.
La estrella vespertina dará luz a tus sueños;
el águila glorificará tu camino.

----Mira, amigo;
--------te doy flores encarnadas
--------como el licor sagrado;
--------canto, como el murmurar del mar.
Labrarás de jade el corazón,
tomarás posesión de la tinta roja, la tinta negra,
enriquecerás a la gente
----se formarán rostros.

Adórnate el pecho con el caracol marino:
----entra al teocalli, casa divina;
----ensaya los cantos; toma asiento;
----toma ablución; toma el manto blanco,
----el maíz, las flores;
----enciende el copal, el fuego;
----desparrama agua; ofrece frutos.
Tu amigo te ensarta un collar de flores
---------------------------------de canto —
Alégrate —
---------------sé alabado:
Adórnate el pecho con el caracol marino.



-----------------© Rafael Jesús González 2008


(El Hacedor de Juegos/The Maker of Games; Casa Editorial;
San Francisco 1977-78, derechos reservados del autor.)

His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

------For the Initiation of a Teacher

---------------------(in the Nahua Mode)

Adorn you breast with the sea-snail,
----master of the sacred words,
----priest of the clear obsidian moon.
The evening star will light your dreams;
the eagle will glorify your path.

----Look, friend:
--------I give you red flowers
--------like the sacred liquor,
--------song like the murmur of the sea.
You shall carve your heart of jade,
possess the red ink, the black ink,
scatter precious plumes,
enrich the people —
-----they shall form a face.

Adorn your breast with the sea-snail:
----Enter the divine house;
----practice the songs, be seated,
----take ablution, take the white cloth,
----the corn, the flowers,
----light incense, fire,
----scatter water, offer fruit.

Your friend strings you a collar of flowers
------------------------------------of song —
Be joyful —
--------------be praised:
Adorn your breast with the sea-snail.



--------------© Rafael Jesús González 2008



(Creative Intelligence 4, London, Jan. 1974; p. 4; author’s copyrights.)



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Year of the Rat 4706

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Tanka of the Year of the Rat


The rat travels with
the good Lord of Beginnings,
remover of blocks.
He will need her to gnaw through
the walls of greed and of fear.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2008



Tanka del año de la rata


La rata acompaña
al Señor de los buenos comienzos,
derribador de obstáculos.
La necesitará para que roe
por los muros de la codicia y el temor.



---------------© Rafael Jesús González 2008


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Mardi Gras

-----Cuentas de carnaval


De las calles
----de Nueva Orleáns
--------en pleno carnaval,
me llamaste;
tu voz un hilo de
----cuentas lustrosas
verdes,
---------doradas,
-------------------púrpuras
me engalanó de encanto
y me hizo bailar el corazón.

Sobre la Bahía de San Francisco
el cielo amanece
----color de cenizas
pero mañana en vez del rosario
diré esas cuentas de carnaval.


------© Rafael Jesús González 2008



-----Carnival Beads


From the streets
----of New Orleans
--------in full Mardi Gras,
you called;
your words, a string
----of lustrous beads,
green,
-------gold,
-------------purple
adorned me with joy
& made my heart dance.

Over San Francisco Bay
the sky dawns
----the color of ashes
but tomorrow instead of the rosary
I will say those carnival beads.


------© Rafael Jesús González 2008

California Primary Election - Deadheads for Obama

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I just got home at 1:30 in the morning from the “Deadheads for Obama” concert in San Francisco on the eve (first hour) of the presidential primary election in California. I fancy myself a Deadhead and I went at the invitation of my friend Katie more to listen to a rare performance of the closest thing to a resurrection of the Grateful Dead since Jerry García's death than as support of Obama.

I have already voted by absentee ballot for John Edwards, the candidate (besides Dennis Kucinich and Bill Richardson) who speaks most clearly to my concerns and values. I don't quite trust Hillary Clinton (her opposition to the war on Iraq has come quite late and not quite lukewarm, her health-plan seems designed in collusion with the “managed healthcare” insurance companies.)

Barack Obama, I am suspicious of. He is too green in the senate (as in 'inexperienced' as opposed to 'environmentally committed') and I don't like the company he keeps (Joe Lieberman who supposedly mentored him in the senate and Zbigniew Brzezinski who is said to be his chief foreign policy advisor; neither of whom share my values and whom I cannot distinguish from the fascist opposition.) The record of his short time in the senate is not impressive and though he speaks change, he seems to have no concrete plan I am aware of on how to bring it about and toward what ends.

But he speaks well, charismatically even. He is young, good-looking, and he has a style that owes not a little to that of Martin Luther King Jr. There is a not little hint of the preacher in his delivery. And he has the words of faith: “unity,” “change,” “hope.” He uses them with a preacher's flare — and they move one. Especially the idealistic young.

I wriggled my butt deliciously to the music so fraught with memories and of a wholeness, kindness, joy that make me feel good. Everyone felt good — joyful even — and most of the 2,400 people who filled the Fox Warfield Theater to capacity were young. Of the deadheads there, I was one of the few veterans, elders (having attended my first Grateful Dead concert in '67), but the vast majority were young.

It is hard to know how many were there, like me, primarily to listen to Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh and friends reunited (for Obama) for the first time since 2004, how many there to make Obama win. The majority, I suspect, for both. The veteran band members of the Grateful Dead support Obama and so do a great many of the young, not only those in the Warfield tonight but most of the young men and women in my life — most of whom are for the first time taking an active part in politics.

They are of the best of our young. They are idealistic, of good values and good heart (the same thing, I guess), and obviously, on this night, full of hope. And tonight I think they swayed me to Obama's camp. It was a matter of the heart, a leap of hope.

It goes like this: OK, Barack, if you get the nomination for the Democrat candidate for the presidency of the United States of America on the trust and vote of the young, promising them “unity,” “change,” “peace,” “hope,” they will expect you to fulfill your promise — or fail in a heroic effort to fulfill it. The farm-workers' slogan ¡Sí se puede!, in the English translation, of course, “Yes we can!” that you sang to them, your guarantee.

You do not play with our youths' hope frivolously, falsely. And if you falter, I trust and expect that they will demand that you be true — with their just anger, even if the laws are in place to criminalize dissent, even if the concentration camps are already built and the rail cars already equipped to take them there.

Had I not already cast my vote and Edwards not withdrawn, I would probably cast it for you today— but let us be clear: my trust would be in and my vote for the hope of youth.

© Rafael Jesús González 2008
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