full moon: Full Moon & Coyotes

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        Luna llena y coyotes


¿Porqué será que los coyotes 
y los lobos y aun los perros 
le aúllen a la luna llena?
No creo que sea por el conejo 
que le marca la mejilla. 
Mas bien creo que sienten 
su jalar en la sangre que les abre 
los cántaros de dolor y pena 
que guardan en silencio 
dentro el alma y desahogan 
en sus cantos lastimeros. 
Si es así es sanadora la luna.



                       © Rafael Jesús González 2021

           

        Full Moon & Coyotes


Why is it that the coyotes 
& the wolves & even the dogs 
howl at the full moon?
I do not believe it is for the rabbit 
that marks her cheek. 
I think rather that they feel 
her pull in the blood that opens 
the jars of pain & grief 
they keep in silence
in the soul & pour out 
in their plaintive songs. 
If that be so, the moon is healing.



                        © Rafael Jesús González 2021

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Earth Day

                 

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Si no hablamos

Si no hablamos para alabar a la Tierra,
es mejor que guardemos silencio.

Loa al aire
que llena el fuelle del pulmón
y alimenta la sangre
del corazón;
que lleva la luz,
el olor de las flores
y los mares,
los cantos de las aves
y el aullido del viento;
que conspira con la distancia

para hacer azul el monte.

-Loa al fuego
que alumbra el día
y calienta la noche,
cuece nuestro alimento
y da ímpetu a nuestra voluntad;
que es el corazón de la Tierra,
este fragmento 

de lucero; que quema y purifica 

por bien o por mal. 


Loa al agua
que hace a los ríos
y a los mares;
que da sustancia a la nube
y a nosotros;
que hace verde a los bosques
y los campos;
que hincha al fruto
y envientra nuestro nacer.

Loa a la tierra
que es el suelo, la montaña,
y las piedras;
que lleva los bosques
y es la arena del desierto;
que nos forma los huesos
y sala los mares, la sangre;
que es nuestro hogar y sitio.


Si no hablamos en alabanza a la Tierra,
-----si no cantamos en festejo a la vida,
----------es mejor que guardemos silencio.

© Rafael Jesús González 2021

Escrito especialmente para el Congreso Mundial de Poetas,
Tai’an, Provincia de Shandong, China, otoño 2005 

(Siete escritores comprometidos: obra y perfil; Fausto Avendaño, director;
Explicación de Textos Literarios vol. 34 anejo 1; diciembre 2007;
Dept. of Foreign Languages; California State University Sacramento;
derechos reservados del autor.)

If We Do Not Speak

If we do not speak to praise the Earth,
it is best we keep silent.

Praise air
that fills the bellow of the lung
& feeds our heart’s blood;
that carries light,
the smell of flowers
& the seas,
the songs of birds
& the wind’s howl;
that conspires with distance
to make the mountains blue.

Praise fire
that lights the day
& warms the night,
cooks our food
& gives motion to our wills;
that is the heart of Earth,
this fragment of a star;
that burns & purifies
for good or ill.

Praise water
that makes the rivers
& the seas;
that gives substance
to the clouds and us;
that makes green the forests
& the fields;
that swells the fruit
& wombs our birth.

Praise earth
that is the ground,
the mountain, & the stones;
that holds the forests
& is the desert sand;
that builds our bones
& salts the seas, the blood;
that is our home & place.


If we do not speak in praise of the Earth,
-----if we do not sing in celebration of life,
----------it is best we keep silence.

© Rafael Jesús González 2021

Written especially for the World Congress of Poets,
Tai’an, Shandong Province, China, Autumn 2005 

(147 Practical Tips for Teaching Sustainability: 
Connecting the Environment, the Economy, and Society;
Timpson, William M. et al, Eds.,
Atwood Publishing Co., Madison, Wisconsin 2006;
author’s copyrights) 

--------------La llamada 


¿Qué puedo decir para incitarte 
-------a defender la Tierra? 
¿Recordarte como se siente el sol? 
¿el sabor de la sal, el olor del laurel? 
¿El chirrido de grillo en noche de verano, 
el arco iris después de lluvia? 
--------¿Lo que es amar? 
¿Imploraré a tu goce 
-----o a tu pavor?
Puede ser terrible la Tierra 
en sus tormentas y sus temblores 
pero es la medida de cual paraíso 
------imaginemos jamás. 
Tú y yo moriremos demasiado pronto
-----pero que no siga la vida 
----------es más allá de aceptable. 
¿Qué puedo decir para que ames la vida 
suficiente para que actúes y alces la voz 
-----------en su defensa?




---------------------------------- © Rafael Jesús González 2021



(Berkeley Times, 19 noviembre 2015;
derechos reservados del autor) 

--------------The Call 


What can I say to entice you 
------to defend the Earth? 
Remind you how the sun feels? 
The taste of salt, the smell of bay? 
a cricket's chirp on a summer night, 
the rainbow after rain? 
-----What it is to love? 
Shall I appeal to your joy 
------or to your fear? 
Earth can be terrible 
in her storms & in her quakes 
but she is the measure of any paradise 
---------we will ever imagine. 
You & I will die all too soon 
------but that life will not go on 
-----------is beyond accepting. 
What can I say to make you love life 
enough to act & raise your voice 
----------in its defense?




-----------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2021



(SeedBroadcast agri-Culture Journal #12, March 2019;
author's copyrights.)

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Taurus

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-----------Tauro


El toro de la tierra fija
lleva como un diamante
entre los cuernos
la estrella matutina.
---Su corazón de esmeralda
---oculta un valor firme
y al cuello lleva yugo de cobre
que lo une
-------------a la tierra
-------------a la estrella
-------------a lo infinito.

------------© Rafael Jesús González 2021

----------------Taurus

The bull of the fixed earth
carries the morning star
like a diamond
between his horns.
----------his emerald heart
----------hides a firm worth
and at the neck he wears a copper yoke
that joins him
------------------to the earth
------------------to the star
------------------to the infinite.




-------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2021



--

Paul Cooper 5/28/1951 – 3/3/2021

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Paul Cooper 2020

Paul Cooper 5/28/1951 – 3/3/2021

On March 3^rd, Paul Cooper, long-time resident of Berkeley, died of Covid. Born May 28^th, 1951, in Philadelphia, he came to Oakland in 1974 with his high-school sweetheart, Chris Orr, partners since they had attended the Woodstock music festival together in 1969.
 
Very soon after his arrival to San Francisco Bay, he began work at the American Baptist Seminary of the West (now the Berkeley School of Theology) becoming Superintendent of Buildings & Grounds.
 
Concerned for the Earth, a tinkerer and inventor, he and his friend Keith Rutledge started the Alternative Energy Collective which, on the first national Sun Day celebration May 1978 in People’s Park, set up an exhibit of various handmade solar devices constructed in the basement of the seminary. The group became a non-profit scientific and educational organization and created the “Steps to Energy Self-Reliance” exhibit for the New Earth Expo festival in San Francisco. It was at that event that a representative of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area asked if the AEC would be interested in setting up an alternative energy center at Fort Cronkhite in the Marin Headlands. Deciding to devote full time to the AEC he left the seminary in 1981, the position to be eventually filled by his brother Gary.
 
After a couple of years at Fort Cronkite, the U.S Department of Energy displaced the AEC’s down-home hands-on approach with large color posters and nicely furnished administrative offices. Needing a new home for the AEC, the collective with a few supporters bought an abandoned Exxon gas station in Oakland at Adeline and 59^th. The AEC added to its nonprofit educational, advocacy, and research, the Solar Station contracting division that among other projects, developed the solar water-heating systems for UC Cooperative Student Housing and the largest commercial solar water heating system in California for ABC Diaper Co. in Berkeley. 
 
Under the Jimmy Carter administration the development of alternative, renewal energy, especially solar, was encouraged and impetus was given the industry with incentives, principally in the form of tax credits. Solar panels were installed on the White House and the infant industry was off to a good start. Here, the Solar Station was known for having broken ground. 
 
Come Ronald Reagan, and the tax credits disappeared as did the solar panels from the White House. Solar’s growth was abruptly crippled, and the Solar Station (like many others of its kind) went under; the Solar Station was forced to declare bankruptcy and with it the AEC ceased to exist.
 
Paul Cooper then started a successful plumbing business from the basement of our house, and in 1997 partnered with Heiko Dzierson to form Pipe Spy Sewer Service whose ubiquitous trucks are now a common sight in the S.F. Bay Area. 
 
Paul never stopped being concerned for the Earth, and tinkerer and inventor that he was, took delight in driving his electric-power converted old Porsche in the annual Alameda Fourth of July parade. In his spare time, he and Justin Gray formed Cooper-Gray Robotics focused on big projects like innovative remote-controlled construction vehicles (skid-steers, excavators, and such) with electric drives. The company closed in 2020 as Paul prepared for retirement.
 
In the forty-six years of our friendship, Paul and I played, supported each other, collaborated, partnered in many things, not only in the AEC and Solar Station days, but in the house we shared on Woolsey St., with keys to each other’s homes, a wall between us through which I could hear his guitar strumming, his and his wife Chris’ laughter, and they perhaps could hear my snores. He was always ready to help with setting up my art installations at the Mexican Museum of San Francisco, the Oakland Museum of California; restoring the balcony; remodeling of the kitchen. He was generous in sharing the blooms of his carefully cultivated cannabis. And generous with his gab; if you asked him for the time of day, he was likely to tell you the history of the clock.
 
Generosity and largeness of spirit was Paul, loving and kind. At a recent remembrance of Paul at the headquarters of Pipe Spy, the workers, some with the company from its beginning (apprentices, journeymen, masters of the craft) after silently meditating and remembering him were asked to answer on a large sheet of paper the question: What gift did Paul bring to your life? A few of the answers: ¡Qué regalo trajo Paul! Best example for all of us. Agradecido. Always happy. Presencia. Safety! Paciencia, Gran Amistad. Friendship. Buen maestro. Good guy. Comunicativo. Honestidad. Compasión. ¡Luz!
 
Yes, Light. So many things could be said of Paul, so many virtues named, but light says it all. The pandemic has its heroes, its fallen, and they are not always healers working in the hospitals. Some of our essential workers are modest in accolades, like the plumber who keeps our water, that essence of life, running to quench our thirst and rid us of our waste. And great men (and women) like Paul Cooper fill such roles. A deep, deep hole his absence leaves to be filled only with the light he brought into so many lives.
 

Rafael Jesús González

Paul Cooper 1969

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c/s The Chican@ Literature Series, University of California Merced

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Easter Sunday

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------------Ha resucitado

Cuentan que un hombre

tan amoroso y justo 

que muchos lo toman 

por benévolo dios 

fue muerto porque su enseñanza

tan amorosa y justa amenazaba
los meros cimientos del imperio
y que contra toda ley de la vida
tres días después resucitó,
cosa no inaudita en el mito
pero asombrosa aun.

Su enseñanza aun amenaza imperios
y muchos que atreven seguirla
son perseguidos y muertos
y la resurrección de él es nada
menos que nuestra revolución.

------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2021

En un mundo gobernado por el odio 

el amar es revolucionario

  

In a world governed by hate, 

to love is revolutionary 

 
------------He Is Risen


They tell that a man
so loving & just
that many take him
for benevolent god
was killed because his teaching
so loving & just threatened
the very foundations of empire
& that against all law of life
three days later resurrected,
not unheard of in myth
but wondrous still.

His teaching still threatens empires
& many who dare follow it
are persecuted & killed,
& his resurrection is nothing
less than our revolution.

------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2021

  

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Good Friday

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----------------Desviado


La luna asoma  
por entre las ramas de los olivos, 
sube sobre la cercana loma 
donde los vergonzosos sucesos 
ocurrieron hace ya un buen tiempo. 
Hablando sin pelos en la lengua,
debía haberse casado, tenido familia, 
practicado su honesta artesanía,
haber hecho algo de si mismo. 
Un tipo guapo y listo, 
prodigio, dicen algunos, 
de mero muchachito presumía 
discutir con sabios. 
Pero aun joven salió 
en alguna búsqueda de visiones o se perdió, 
vaya a saber, en la anonimia de la ciudad. 
Le gustaba la juerga y en una fiesta una vez 
logró encontrar vino donde no lo había 
causando lenguas contar chismes exagerados.
Recogía gente en alguna colina 
y les hablaba — revolvía la plebe, si gusta.
Una vez se metió con los banqueros 
y vendedores de palomas y borreguitos 
en la casa santa. ¿Para qué? 
Las casillas de cambio y puestos de animales 
estaban allí al día siguiente. 
Nada mas disgustó a las autoridades 
y mire como paró  — 
--------------------------estirado y colgando. 
-------Y las cosas sin cambiar una pepita.

-------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2021

  

-----------Gone Wrong


The moon peers 
from among the olive branches, 
rises over the nearby hill 
where the shameful happenings 
took place a good while back. 
Bluntly speaking, 
he should have married, had a family, 
practiced his honest craft,
made something of himself. 
A handsome fellow and bright, 
a prodigy, some say, 
a mere boy he presumed 
to discuss with scholars. 
But a young man still he went off 
on some vision quest or lost himself, 
for all we know, in the anonymity of the city.
He liked a good time and at a party once 
managed to find wine where there was none 
setting some tongues to tell tall tales about it. 
He would gather folk on some small hill
and talk to them — rabble rouse, if you will.
Once, he messed with the bankers 
and sellers of pigeons and small sheep 
in the holy-house. For what? 
The exchange booths and animal stalls 
were back up the next day. 
It just upset the authorities, 
and look how he ended up —
---------------------stretched out and hanging. 
-----And things not changed a pip.




 -------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2021

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April, National Poetry Month

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-----------Loco Poeta


El poeta, loco que es
camina a la orilla
del precipicio del significado
buscando una verdad más elevada
esperando que las palabras
como abejas rumbo a la colmena
lo guié a ella. 
El costal que lleva en una vara
está lleno de palabras y trucos
más de lo que jamás usará. 
La rosa no es sólo una rosa
sino metáfora de ¿qué?
Lilas a la puerta son abril.
Soñador, visionario, loco
el perro del hecho mundano
le muerde los talones,
le desgarra los calzones, 
le expone el culo al aire
recordándole de que para lo que
busca no hay palabra que le cuadre. 


--------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2021

---------Fool Poet


The poet, fool that he is
walks the edge
of the precipice of meaning 
looking for a higher truth
hoping that words
like homing bees 
will lead him to it. 
The bag he carries on a stick
is full of words & tricks
more than he will ever use.
The rose is not just a rose
but a metaphor for what?
Lilacs by the door is April. 
Dreamer, visionary, fool,
the dog of mundane fact
snaps at his heels,
tears his pants,
exposes his butt to the air
reminding him that for what
he seeks no word can fit.


--------------© Rafael Jesús González 2021

  

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Holy Thursday

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---Ritual para Jueves Santo

Llegan como mariposas
de largas distancias,
otros países, otros continentes,
pies cansados, gastados,
heridos, polvorientos 
de cruzar ríos y montes, 
selvas y desiertos 
huyendo hambre y asesinos.
Y nosotros que vivimos
en el imperio que los desplazó 
podemos hacer no menos
que lo que hizo el Maestro:
tiernamente lavarles los pies
y decirles, "Les tenemos lugar
puesto en la mesa.


-------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2021

 

---Ritual for Holy Thursday

They come like butterflies
from long distances,
other countries, other continents,
feet tired, worn, wounded, dusty
from crossing rivers & mountains,
jungles & deserts 
fleeing hunger & murderers.
& we who live in the empire
that displaced them
can do no less
than what the Master did:
to tenderly wash their feet 
& say, "We have a place
set for you at the table."



--------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2021

 Pope Francis

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