Saturday, January 25, 2020

Year of the Rat 4718


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Katsushika Hokusai, Edo period




Year of the Rat 4718


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


       
---------------------------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2020






Año de la rata 4718


 
La rata viaja
con el buen Señor de los comienzos
derribador de obstáculos.
La necesitará para que roe a través
de los muros de la codicia y el temor.


       
------  ------------------------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2020





Wanatabe Shotei 1851 – 1918





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Monday, January 20, 2020

on Martin Luther King Jr.'s Day





To celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day, I read the "Letter from Birmingham Jail," the "I have a Dream" speech, the "Beyond Vietnam" speech, see the video of his last speech in Memphis shortly before he was killed. It is about our revolution, continuation of what he inspired: Civil Rights, the Anti-War Movement, the Farm Workers Movement, the Counter Culture, the Poor People's campaign, the Chicano and Black movements, Women's Liberation/Men's Liberation, the Environmental Movement, and much more. Contemporaries, I read and saw, heard broadcasts of his words as soon as they were published or said — and I took them to heart. It was clear: our revolution was non-violent, rooted in love, anxious for justice, for peace, the Earth, inexorable.

We know the story; the back-lash came soon, the "conservative revolution" of the far right, neo-conservative with a smattering of neo-liberal (often difficult to distinguish one from the other) presidents and administrations increasingly neo-fascistic, criminal — until full-blown POTUS 45, a fascist Senate to back him, and a fascist-compromised Supreme Court with only the House of Representatives to resist a fully authoritarian fascist state. And all we had gained for justice now at stake. Let us call things for what they are.

And now our revolution surges and it is we, our voice Senator Bernie Sanders who has never wavered in the cause of justice, reason, compassion in all the years that he has held office and who would have defeated POTUS 45 in the last election had he been permitted by the establishment to be the democratic candidate.

We saw the Democratic debate on CNN last week January 14 for the charade it was, pitting Elizabeth Warren against Bernie Sanders, the two best candidates who offer any really significant change (though Warren, admitted "Capitalist to [her] bones" less likely) over nothing of substance, an obvious ploy to divide and undermine the progressive Democrats. And when Sanders spoke of health care for all, free public higher education, a green new deal to do something concrete to curb climate change, Biden and Buttigieg (both beholden to corporate donations and darlings of the "establishment" Democratic Party) objected, "How are you going to pay for it? We can't afford it," a question they would never ask of the obscene billions wasted on "defense," the Orwellian term for perpetual war benefitting only the ruling 1%.

It was the eve of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and in Sander's assertion "it's not about me; it's about us, our revolution," I caught echoes of what King had said. I thought of the children at our southern border torn from their mothers', fathers' arms, put in cages, dispersed. I think of so many suffering illness, unable to afford a doctor or medicine, about the homeless in tents under our freeways, of constant war. The seas grow hot, Brazil and Australia burn, Mont Blanc melts, ready to come down, the poles are melting as are the glaciers everywhere, hurricanes and tornadoes grow  in intensity and frequency, islands disappear in the rising waters, species daily become extinct.

Business as usual is no longer an option. The revolution is now, not of guns and violence, but of a fierce love, of consciousness, a change of heart. I think of Martin Luther King, our revolution.


Rafael Jesús González


For us with the technology, 
make our revolution 
and download the Bernie 2020 App.





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Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Martin Luther King Jr. (1/15/29 - 4/4/68)

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----------------The Dream

-------------------------to Martin Luther King Jr.


"I have a dream," he said,
the dream, fitted to his times,
that his master the Nazarene
two-thousand years ago amplified
from the ancient scriptures of his cult,
the dream already pressed 
into the clay tablets of Ur,
entered in the ledger of Toth,
the dream that when realized
will make us truly great.



----------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2020





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-------------------El sueño


-------------------------a Martin Luther King Jr.


— Tengo un sueño — dijo,
el sueño, medido a sus tiempos,
que su maestro el nazareno
hace dos mil años amplificó
de las antiguas escrituras de su culto,
el sueño ya estampado
en las tabletas de barro de Ur,
puesto en la cuenta de Tot,
el sueño que cuando se cumpla
nos hará verdaderamente grandes.



----------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2020








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Friday, January 10, 2020

full moon: There is a madness

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Hay alguna locura 
que no podemos achacar a la luna;
es inocente.
Enfermos de corazón, nuestro sanar
está en nuestra revolución.


---------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2020








There is a madness
we cannot blame on the moon;
she is innocent.
Sick to the heart, our healing
is in our revolution.


--------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2020




 



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Monday, January 6, 2020

Epiphany: 12th Day


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--------Dejando la visita


Nos sorprendió el lugar 
al que nos llevó la estrella
tan poco digno del nacer de un rey
pero nuestros cálculos no dejaban duda —
un establo oliente a paja y estiércol 
habitado por un buey y un burro,
ocasionado por corderos y cabritos.
El niño como todo recién nacido
nada tenía que lo distinguiera.
La mujercita como toda buena madre 
dulce y tierna, el hombre ya no joven 
mostraba ternura y solicitud;
estaban aun más sorprendidos y perpleyos
por nuestra visita que nosotros por estar allí.
Le dejamos los obsequios que de tan lejos
le traíamos: el cofrecito de oro cincelado
con leones y soles, la caja de marfil llena
de incienso, la urna de ébano llena de mirra
y partimos en silencio. 
Al fin el más joven de nosotros tres murmuró 
----— Tal vez traiga revolución.— 
Los otros dos guardamos en silencio 
la esperanza que su decir despertó.




-----------------© Rafael Jesús González 2020 







-----------------Leaving the Visit 


We were surprised by the place
to which the star brought us
so little worthy of a king's birth,
but our calculations left no doubt — 
a stable redolent of hay and dung 
inhabited by an ox and a donkey,
occasioned by lambs and kids.
The child like all new born
had nothing to distinguish him.
The little woman, like all good mother
sweet and tender, the man no longer young
showed tenderness and solicitude;
they were even more surprised and perplexed
by our visit that we for being there. 
We left the gifts we had brought from so far:
the little gold coffer chased
with lions and suns, the ivory box filled
with incense; the ebony urn filled with myrrh, 
and we left in silence.
Finally the youngest of us three murmured,
----"Perhaps he brings revolution."
The other two kept in silence 
the hope his saying awoke.



-----------------© Rafael Jesús González 2020 




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Wednesday, January 1, 2020

happy year 2020

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- श्रीगणेश


Invocación a Ganesh

Om Shri Ganeshaaya Namah


Sentado en el centro
(rodeado de calaveras)
donde el lazo de los años se anuda,
goloso señor cabeza de elefante,
levántate y baila la cuenta nueva;
con tu hacha derrumba
los obstáculos
a nuestro vivir,
pisotea los obstáculos
a nuestro amar,
y haz dulce el camino nuevo.
Que tus familiares
el ratón y la rata roen
al almacén de las bendiciones;
que tu serpiente hable.
Con tu colmillo
en el libro de lo que fue
escribe lo que pueda ser
y de tu caracol sopla
el sonido primordial de lo que es.




----------© Rafael Jesús González 2020

(Spillway 17, ontoño 2011,
derechos reservados del autor)


[De los muchos dioses hindú, Ganesh, dios de dharma y del buen agüero, es el más popularmente amado y venerado. Sus características son su cabeza de elefante y su barriga gorda que metafísicamente se dice contiene todo el cosmos. Sus familiares son el ratón y la rata porque roen por los obstáculos y frecuentan los almacenes de abundancia. Generoso donador de beneficios y derribador de obstáculos, él es el patrón de los comienzos, del desarrollo, de la liberación, de las empresas, tanto físicas como espirituales. Como tal, él es el primero de todos los dioses en ser invocado y se le pide su bendición al comienzo de un día, de una carta, de un rito, de cualquier empresa. Amable guía por las alturas y los abismos de la vida, se dice que él es la buena fortuna manifiesta, la sabiduría descubierta, el tiempo encarnado y la abundancia desbordante. Hay 1008 nombres para describir sus poderes divinos y su bendición es un verdadero don.]



Invocation to Ganesh
Om Shri Ganeshaaya Namah



Seated in the center
(ringed with skulls)
where the noose of years is tied,
sweet-toothed, elephant-headed lord,
rise and dance the new count;
ax down the obstacles
to our living,
trample the obstacles
to our loving,
and make sweet the new path.
Let your familiars
the mouse & the rat
gnaw through
to the storehouse of blessings;
let your snake speak.
With your tusk,
in your book of what was,
write what may be
and from your conch blow
the primordial sound of what is.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2020

(Spillway 17, Fall 2011;
author's copyrights)


[Of the many Hindu gods, Ganesh, god of dharma and good portent, is the most widely loved and revered. His distinctive traits are his elephant head and his fat belly metaphysically said to contain the entire cosmos. His familiars are the mouse and the rat because they gnaw through obstacles and frequent larders of plenty. Generous Boon-Giver and Remover of Obstacles, he is patron of beginnings, of growth, of liberation, enterprises, both physical and spiritual. As such, he is the first of all the gods to be invoked and his blessing asked at the start of a day, a letter, a ritual, any undertaking. Gentle guide through the ups and downs of life, he is said to be good fortune manifest, wisdom revealed, time embodied, and abundance over-flowing. There are 1008 names to describe his divine powers and his blessing is a gift indeed.]


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