Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Alameda Island Poets Reading — January 4, 2012

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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year, Poets!

We are beginning the New Year, January 4, 2012 with a very special Featured Reader. Rafael Jesús Gónzalez, professor of literature and creative writing has taught at the University of Oregon, Western State College of Colorado, Central Washington State University, University of Texas, El Paso (as a visiting professor of Philosophy) and at Laney College, Oakland, where he founded the Dept. of Mexican and Latin American Studies. He has also taught in the k-12 elementary and high schools as part of the Poets in the Classroom program. His poetry and articles appear in reviews and anthologies in the U.S., Mexico and abroad. In 1996 he was named "Poet in Residence" at the Oakland Museum. In 2005, he was invited to read his poetry and present a paper at the World Congress of Poets in Tai'an, Province of Shandong, China. In 2006, he was named Universal Ambassador of Peace, Universal Ambassador Peace Circle, Geneva, Switzerland. In 2007 he presented a paper and read his poetry at the 8 Encuentro Literario Internacional aBrace in Montevideo, Uruguay, and in 2008 he read his poetry in Havana, Cuba. In October, 2009 he was honored by the City of Berkeley for his life's work in writing, art, teaching, activism for social justice and peace, and community work. He currently sits on the Latino Advisory Council of the Oakland Museum. His book of moon poems La musa lunática/The Lunatic Muse was published by Pandemonium Press, Berkeley in 2009.




We are very honored to host
Rafael Jesús González
as our first Featured Reader for 2012
on
January 4

he will be accompanied on the flute by
Gerardo Omar Marín

(musician, ritualist,
Restorative Justice, Environmental, & Food Justice activist)

Featured Reader from 7:00 - 7:35pm

Open Mic until 9:00pm.

Light Refreshments will be served.

Books Inc, 1344 Park St.

Alameda, California 94501




Books Inc is located at 1344 Park St., Alameda, 94501
telephone (510) 522-2226 or (510) 995-8698
Parking is available at the public lot on Oak St. near the intersection of Oak St. and Central St. Also a public lot (free after 6pm) located directly across from the Alameda Theater. Street parking is also available.

Alameda Island Poets
is a multicultural, multigenerational reading series.
All are welcomed and invited to include your voice!


Nanette Bradley Deetz
Coordinator, Reading Series

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Saturday, December 24, 2011

Christmas blessings

-
---------A esto


Se dice que
el fulgor de un lucero
y el cantar de ángeles
anunciaron el nacer
del dios hecho hombre,
del niño nacido
entre animales domésticos.

Sea lo que sea el cuento
de la trágica y gloriosa
trayectoria de su vida,
todo se reduce a esto:
---enseñó a amar.




----© Rafael Jesús González 2011







-------------To This


It is said
that the brightness of a star
& the singing of angels
announced the birth
of the god made man,
the child born
among domestic animals.

Whatever is the story
of the tragic & glorious
trajectory of his life,
it all comes to this:
---he taught to love.




----© Rafael Jesús González 2011

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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Capricorn — Winter Solstice

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Capricorn — Winter Solstice


-


------Capricornio

La cabra, piel hirsuta,
---cuernos de turquesa,
---ojos de granate,
---pesuñas de plomo,
se arrodilla a Saturno,
planeta de sortijas,
en la noche larga
----y persevera, dura
----en su anhelo de cornear
el punto cardinal de la tierra.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2011



------Capricorn

The goat, hirsute hide,
-----horns of turquoise
-----garnet eyes,
-----hoofs of lead,
kneels to Saturn,
planet of rings,
in the long night
---& perseveres, persists
---in his desire to gore
the cardinal point of the earth.




----------© Rafael Jesús González 2011

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Monday, December 12, 2011

Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

-
-

------Rezo a Tonantzin


Tonantzin
---madre de todo
---lo que de ti vive,
es, habita, mora, está;
Madre de todos los dioses
------------------las diosas
madre de todos nosotros,
-------la nube y el mar
-------la arena y el monte
-------el musgo y el árbol
-------el ácaro y la ballena.

Derramando flores
haz de mi manto un recuerdo
que jamás olvidemos que tú eres
único paraíso de nuestro vivir.

Bendita eres,
cuna de la vida, fosa de la muerte,
fuente del deleite, piedra del sufrir.

concédenos, madre, justicia,
--------concédenos, madre, la paz.




---------© Rafael Jesús González 2011



anonymous, Mexico 1746


----Prayer to Tonantzin


Tonantzin
-----mother of all
-----that of you lives,
be, dwells, inhabits, is;
Mother of all the gods
---------------the goddesses
Mother of us all,
---------the cloud & the sea
---------the sand & the mountain
---------the moss & the tree
---------the mite & the whale.

Spilling flowers
make of my cloak a reminder
that we never forget that you are
the only paradise of our living.

Blessed are you,
cradle of life, grave of death,
fount of delight, rock of pain.

Grant us, mother, justice,
-------grant us, mother, peace.



--------© Rafael Jesús González 2011



by Robert Lentz
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-
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Saturday, December 10, 2011

full moon: Occupying Moon

-


---------------Luna ocupante


La luna plena
que marca acontecimientos —
el encuentro de un amigo en el parque,
la ocupación de una calle o una plaza
con campamento de carpas brotando
como hongos extraterrestres
de todos colores del arco iris —
ocupa todo —
esquinas y rincones,
atrios y parques.
Con su luz ocupa todo lo que encuentre.

No se le ocurriría
al policía más bárbaro
regarla con gas lacrimógeno.

Sería por demás —
aunque de vez en cuando
se sonroje y se esconda
en la sombra de la tierra
-----------la luna no llora.





----------------© Rafael Jesús González 2011








----------Occupying Moon


The full moon
that marks happenings —
meeting a friend in a park,
the occupation of a street or a plaza
with an encampment of tents sprouting
like extraterrestrial mushrooms
all the colors of the rainbow —
occupies everything —
outer & inner corners, atriums & parks.
With its light it occupies all it finds.

It would never occur
even to the most barbaric police
to spray her with tear gas.

It would be useless —
even though now & again
she may blush & hide
in the shadow of the Earth
--------------the moon does not cry.




-------------© Rafael Jesús González 2011




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Thursday, November 24, 2011

Thanksgiving


-


-----------------Grace


Thanks and blessing be
to the Sun and the Earth
for this bread and this wine,
----this fruit, this meat, this salt,
---------------this food;
thanks be
and blessing to them
who prepare it, who serve it;
thanks
and blessing to them
who share it
-----(
and also the absent and the dead.)
Thanks
and blessing to them who bring it
--------(may they not want),
to them who plant
and tend it,
harvest
and gather it
--------(may they not want);
thanks
and blessing to them who work
--------
and blessing to them who cannot;
may they not want — for their hunger
------sours the wine
----------
and robs the salt of its taste.
Thanks be for the sustenance
and strength
for our dance
and the work of justice, of peace.



----------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2011



(The Montserrat Review, Issue 6, Spring 2003
[nominated for the Hobblestock Peace Poetry Award];
author’s copyrights.)







-------------Gracias


Gracias y benditos sean
el Sol y la Tierra
por este pan y este vino,
-----esta fruta, esta carne, esta sal,
----------------este alimento;
gracias y bendiciones
a quienes lo preparan, lo sirven;
gracias y bendiciones
a quienes lo comparten
(y también a los ausentes y a los difuntos.)
Gracias y bendiciones a quienes lo traen
--------(que no les falte),
a quienes lo siembran y cultivan,
lo cosechan y lo recogen
-------(que no les falte);
gracias y bendiciones a los que trabajan
-------y bendiciones a los que no puedan;
que no les falte — su hambre
-----hace agrio el vino
-----------y le roba el gusto a la sal.
Gracias por el sustento y la fuerza
para nuestro bailar y nuestra labor
--------por la justicia y la paz.



---------------© Rafael Jesús González 2011



(The Montserrat Review, no. 6, primavera 2003
[postulado para el Premio de la Poesía por la Paz Hobblestock;
derechos reservados del autor.)




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--- -

Monday, November 21, 2011

Sagittarius

-
-

-
------------Sagitario

El arquero apunta a Júpiter,
----planeta de tantas lunas,
cuya luz se refleja en sus ancas,
y en la punta de topacio de su saeta
brota la llama inconstante del anhelo.
------En cadena de estaño
------lleva pectoral de turquesa
------bruñida de ensueños
---------y apunta
-------------------y apunta
---------y anhela herir al cielo.



----------------© Rafael Jesús González 2011



-------------Sagittarius

The archer points at Jupiter,
-----planet of many moons
whose light reflects on his haunches,
& on the topaz point of his arrow
bursts the inconstant flame of his desire.
------On a chain of tin
------he wears a medallion of turquoise
------polished by dreams
---------& he points
----------------------& he points
------& desires to wound the sky.




----------------© Rafael Jesús González 2011
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Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Occupy



------------- To Occupy


---------(definition & declaration)



1. We are here to seize possession of

& maintain control over

----not the Earth, but the world

not by military conquest

but peaceably, without violence.


2. We are here to fill up;

-------------take time & space

to make known our grievances,

to say that the Earth & its riches

are for us all to share

(with our brothers & sisters, our relations

the other animals, the plants, the minerals),

that greed & lust for power over others,

over the Earth, are not virtues but sins,

that the fruits of what we produce

are ours to share.


3. We are here to dwell & reside in;

be tenants of the Earth & the world,

------a world of our creation

in which, as the great teachers have taught,

love is the greatest virtue,

root & source of justice

without which there can be no peace.


4. We are here to hold & fill

our office & position as citizens,

not only of this country, this empire,

------but of the world

in union with all who hold sacred

the Earth, one another,

our relations the other animals

the trees, the brush, the grass,

the air, the fire, the water, the soil.


5. We are here to engage, to employ,

& to busy ourselves with all peaceful means

to say that we will no longer stand idle

in the face of injustice & knavery,

in the face of perpetual war,

in the face of power that is used

only for the good of the few

at the expense of the rest

& of the Earth


------Yes, we are here to occupy,

-- ----& we will not go away.



-------------© Rafael Jesús González 2011



(to be appear in OCCUPY SF - poems from the movement anthology, 2012)




Arrest of Francisco "Pancho" Ramos-Stierle,

Oakland, California, November 14, 2011



----------------A Ocupar


----------(definición y declaración)




1. Aquí estamos para tomar posesión de

& mantener control sobre

------no la Tierra sino el mundo

no por conquista militar

sino apaciblemente, sin violencia.


2. Aquí estamos para llenar;

---------tomar tiempo y espacio

para hacer saber nuestras quejas,

para decir que la Tierra y sus riquezas

son de todos nosotros para compartir

(con nuestr@s herman@s, nuestra parentela

los otros animales, las plantas, los minerales);

que la codicia y el deseo del poder sobre otros,

sobre la Tierra, no son virtudes sino pecados,

que los frutos de lo que producimos

son nuestros para compartir.


3. Aquí estamos para habitar y residir en,

ser inquilinos de la Tierra y del mundo,

------un mundo de nuestra creación

en que como han enseñado l@s grandes maestr@s

el amar es la más grande virtud,

la raíz y fuente de la justicia

sin la cual no puede haber paz.


4. Aquí estamos para tener y llenar

nuestro puesto y posición como ciudadanos,

no sólo de este país, este emperio,

---- --sino del mundo

en unión con todos que tengan por sagrada

a la Tierra, los unos a los otros,

a nuestra parentela los otros animales,

a los árboles, los arbustos, las hierbas,

al aire, al fuego, al agua, a la tierra.


5. Aquí estamos para empeñarnos, emplearnos,

y dedicarnos con todos medios pacíficos

para decir que ya no nos quedaremos quietos

ante la injusticia y la bribonada,

ante guerra perpetua,

ante el poder que se usa

solamente para el bien de los cuantos

a costo de los demás

y de la Tierra.


------Sí, aquí estamos para ocupar,

----------y no nos iremos.



-------------© Rafael Jesús González 2011




(aparecerá en OCCUPY SF - antología de poemas del movimiento, 2012)





Friday, November 11, 2011

Veterans Day

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-

[Precious little has changed; the U.S. of A. is still in the quagmire of illegal, immoral, untenable war. We are still in Iraq, sinking more deeply in Afghanistan, unofficially involved in Pakistan. And in these times of financial breakdown, it is hardly brought up as an issue; it lies there like the putrefying body of an elephant, ignored and stinking to the high heavens while the politicians insist that funding for health care, education, social security, healing the Earth be cut when what we waste in war could cover all those expenses with more to spare. I take hope in that "Occupy Wall Street", "Occupy Oakland", "Occupy" wherever, is an indication that we are awaking from the nightmare that the "American Dream" has so long ignored.]






-Veterans Day

When the First World War officially ended June 28, 1919, the actual fighting had already stopped the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month the previous year. Armistice Day, as it was known, later became a national holiday, and in 1954 (the year I graduated from high school), the name was changed to Veterans Day to honor all U.S. veterans of all wars.

The only veteran of that war, “the war to end all wars”, I ever knew was my father’s step-father Benjamín Armijo, from New Mexico, an old man who seldom spoke and whom I would on occasion see wearing his cap of The American Legion. (He was also Republican.)

“The war to end all wars” was anything but that and when I was not much more than five, three of my uncles on my mother’s side (Roberto, Armando, Enrique) went off to fight another war, the Second World War.

I missed my uncles and remembered them by their photos on my grandmother’s home altar, very handsome in their uniforms; in the endless rosaries and litanies the women in the family regularly met to pray; and in the three blue stars that hanged in the window.

My uncle Roberto, tío Beto, did not last his second year; he came home and ulcers and los nervios, nerves, were mentioned. My uncle Armando, tío Pana, in the Infantry division or the Cavalry Division (though not one horse was ever ridden into battle in that war), served in the Pacific Theater, and Guadalcanal is a name that in some way sticks in his history. My uncle Enrique, tío Kiki, the youngest, in the Airborne Division, the “Screaming Eagles,” served in the European Theater and parachuted into the taking of Germany.

After that war ended, they came home, tío Pana into a hospital, sick with malaria which affected him throughout the rest of his life; tío Kiki with a malady in the soul not so easily diagnosed, hidden in his quiet humor, gentle ways. All my uncles were gentle men, in all senses of the word. And Beto, Pana, Kiki spoke not at all about their experiences of war in spite of my curiosity and questions which they diverted with a little joke or change of subject. What they had seen, felt was apparently not to be spoken and the family sensed this and respected their reticence. Neither of them joined the Veterans of Foreign Wars that I ever knew.



The Korean War “broke out”, as they say, as if it were acne, not long after. But as for me, I have never fought in any war, though I joined the U. S. Navy upon graduating from El Paso High School to become a Hospital Corpsman and obtain the G.I. Bill with which to enter Pre-Med studies upon my discharge; two of four years in the Navy I spent in the Marine Corps with the rank of Staff Sergeant. The Korean War had already ended. And though I served closely enough to it to be given the Korea Defense Service Medal and am legally a veteran and eligible to join the VFW, I never did nor do I intend to.

If I consider myself veteran of any war, it would be of the Viet-Nam War, not because I fought in it, far from it, but because I struggled against it. (I counseled conscientious objectors, picketed recruiting offices, marched in the streets.) The war veterans I have most intimately known are from that war, many, if not most, wounded and ill in body (from bullets, shrapnel, agent-orange), wounded and ill in the soul (terror, guilt, shame, hatred putrefying their dreams, tainting their loves.)

I am leery of being asked to honor veterans of almost any war, except as I honor the suffering, the being of every man or woman who ever lived. I am sick of “patriotism” behind which so many scoundrels hide. I am sick of war that has stained almost every year of my life. Especially now, in the midst of yet another unjustified, immoral, illegal, untenable, cynical, cruel war our nation wages in Iraq, in Afghanistan. I am impatient with fools who ask whether I “support our troops.”

What does it mean to “support our troops”? What is a troop but a herd, a flock, a band? What is a troop but a group of actors whose duty it is not to reason why, but to do and die? In the years I served in the Navy and Marine Corps as a medic, I never took care of a troop; I took care of men who had been wounded and hurt, who cut themselves and bled, who suffered terrible blisters on their feet from long marches, who fell ill sick with high fevers. If to support means to carry the weight of, keep from falling, slipping, or sinking, give courage, faith, help, comfort, strengthen, provide for, bear, endure, tolerate, yes, I did, and do support all men and women unfortunate enough to go to war.

Troops, I do not. If to support means to give approval to, be in favor of, subscribe to, sanction, uphold, then I do not. The decision to make war was/is not theirs to make; troops are what those who make the decisions to war use (to kill and to be killed, to be brutalized into torturers) for their own ends, not for ours, certainly not for the sake of the men and woman who constitute the “troops.”

Indeed, I find the question whether I "support our troops" offensive, cynical, hypocritical given that we care so little for our veterans: so many are homeless; find no work; have little care for their wounds, physical and psychological; little for their addictions; many are in prison; many commit suicide. This acknowledged, the "patriotism" the question pretends is hollow and blind.

I honor veterans of war the only way in which I know how to honor: with compassion; with respect; with understanding for how they were/are used, misled, indoctrinated, coerced, wasted, hurt, abandoned; with tolerance for their beliefs and justifications; with efforts to see that their wounds, of body and of soul, are treated and healed, their suffering and sacrifice compensated. I never refuse requests for donations to any veterans’ organization that seeks benefits and services for veterans. I honor veterans, men and woman; not bands, not troops.

If you look to my window on this day, the flag you will see hanging there will be the rainbow flag of peace. It hangs there in honor of every veteran of any war of any time or place. Indoors, I will light a candle and burn sage, recommit myself to the struggle for justice and for peace. Such is the only way I know in which to honor the veterans (and victims) of war, military or civilian.

Berkeley, November 11, 2007


© Rafael Jesús González 2011


Universal Peace Flag
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Thursday, November 10, 2011

full moon: What Does the Moon Seek?


-
--------------------¿Qué busca la luna?


¿Qué busca la luna
en los rincones?
¿Alguna cuenta perdida
de jade o de cornerina,
una perla extraviada?
¿secretos de la soledad
hechos de lanilla y polvo?
Cuando se mete por la ventana
¿qué busca en los libreros?
¿algún título olvidado
que merezca leerse otra vez?
¿tal vez un verso
que aliviara al corazón
cansado con amar?
Dime, luna ¿qué buscas
en los libreros,
--------las mesas,
------------los rincones?




----------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2011







-------------------What Does the Moon Seek?


What does the moon seek
in the corners?
Some lost bead
of jade or carnelian,
a wayward pearl?
The secrets of solitude
made of lint & dust?
When it comes through the window,
what does it seek in the bookcases?
Some forgotten title
that merits reading again?
Perhaps a verse
that would sooth the heart
tired with loving?
Tell me, moon, what do you seek
in the bookcases,
--------the tables,
-------------the corners?



------------© Rafael Jesús González 2011

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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Feast of All Souls (Día de Muertos)

--
--
--Consejo para el peregrino a Mictlan

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

Cruza el campo amarillo de cempoales,
baja al reino de las sombras;
es amplio, es estrecho.
Interroga a los ancianos;
son sabios, son necios:
— Señores míos, Señoras mías,
¿Qué verdad dicen sus flores, sus cantos?
¿Son verdaderamente bellas, ricas sus plumas?
¿No es el oro sólo excremento de los dioses?
Sus jades, ¿son los más finos, los más verdes?
Su legado, ¿es tinta negra, tinta roja? —

Acepta sólo lo preciso:

-----lo que te haga amplio el corazón
--------lo que te ilumine el rostro.



-----------------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2011







-----Advice for the Pilgrim to Mictlan

------------------- (in the Nahua mode)

Cross the yellow fields of marigolds,
descend to the realm of shadows;
it is wide, it is narrow.
Question the ancients;
they are wise, they are fools:

— My Lords, My Ladies,
What truth do your flowers, your songs tell?
Are your feathers truly lovely, truly rich?
Is not gold only the excrement of the gods?
Your jades, are they the finest, the most green?
Your legacy, is it black ink, red ink? —

Accept only the necessary:

-----what will widen your heart
----what will enlighten your face.





----------------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2014


Descent to Mictlan, The Land of the Dead

(Trance Poem in the Nahua Mode)

[Descent to Mictlan, Land of the Dead: Trance Poem in the Nahua mode (commissioned by the Oakland Museum of California while the author was Poet in Residence under a Writers on Site award by Poets & Writers, Inc. and a grant from The James Irvine Foundation in 1996) was written as a performance piece for voice, drums, didgeridoos, and movement intended to guide the audience upon an introspective journey of the imagination down into the kingdom of Death.

It is not so much entertainment as it is ritual art which, with the consent of each person in the audience to give himself or herself to their imagination, would induce the heightened perception of trance to descend into our collective and personal past to examine the legacy of our ancestors. What they have given us, we have become. It may be read by the attentive reader in the same way.

The times demand that we take stock of who we are, for our great Mother the Earth is wounded and, to heal her, we must heal ourselves, learn from the wisdom of our forebears and discard their mistakes. And in return for what each brings back from the store house of the past, each must make a commitment, in good faith, to change and to heal ourselves; and to care for and protect the Earth, all that she bears, and each other in brotherhood and sisterhood of the spirit and of the flesh. It is a gift and a blessing. Any less and we risk our own extinction on the Earth.]



Cruzad el campo amarillo de cempoales.
Cross the yellow fields of marigolds.
Bajad al reino de las sombras — es amplio, es estrecho.
Descend to the realm of shadows — it is wide, it is narrow.

We come to the mouth of the cavern of caverns,
realm of Mictlantecuhtli, Mictlancihuatl,
Señor-Señora Muerte, Our Lord, Our Lady of Death —
It is wide, it is narrow;
pasad, enter this chamber of yellow blooms,
--------the cempoalxochitl, the shield flower,
------------flor de muertos, flower of the Dead.

We step, we walk;
-----we walk the sacred;
---------every step is sacred.
We walk in the tracks of our ancestors,
we step in the tracks of the old ones,
----our grandmothers, our grandfathers,
----the ancients:
--------the people of the drum
--------the people of the canoe
--------the people of the pyramids
--------the people of the spear
--------the people of the shuttle and loom
--------the people of the sickle and plow,
------------our ancient ones, all of the clans.
They taught us to see;
they taught us not to see;
-----from them we learned to see;
-----------we learned not to see.
They taught us to dream;
------they taught us to fear;
-----------much to learn, much to unlearn.
We step in their tracks, we step on the sacred.

We walk, we step in the tracks of our ancestors,
----our relations:
---------the ocelot
---------the buffalo
---------the coyote
---------the bear
---------the salmon, the serpent, the eagle, the hawk,
---------monkey, turtle, frog,
---------the owl and the bat.
Further, further we walk:
the spider, the moth, the fly, the coral, the mite,
ameba, paramecium, germ, virus - all of the clans.
They taught us to see, to live in the now,
------to smell, to taste,
------to hear, to live in the now.
We step in their tracks,
-----we walk on the sacred —
---------all our relations, all of the clans.

We walk, we step in the tracks of our ancestors,
our relations:
-----the fern, the redwood
-----the pine, the oak
-----the cactus, the mesquite
-----the violet, the rose
-----the fig, the grape-vine, the wheat
-----the corn, the thistle, the grass
-----the mushroom, the moss, the lichen, the algae,
-----the mold — all of the clans.
They taught us to touch, to fully delight in the here,
------to find contentment on the here.
We step in their tracks,
-----we walk on the sacred —
---------all our relations, all of the clans.

We walk, we step
-----in the tracks of our ancestors, our relations:
--------the granite, the sandstone
--------the jasper, the serpentine
--------the turquoise, the flint
--------the opal, the crystal
--------the agate, the jade
--------the gold, the iron
----the silver, the lead, the copper, the tin,
----boulder, pebble, sand, dust — all of the clans.
They taught us silence, quiet;
------they taught us to stay, to be.
We step in their track,
-----we walk on the sacred —
---------all our relations, all of the clans.

------It is dark; it is light —
here the roots of the Tree of Life,
------árbol de la vida, tree of Tamoanchan.
Look: wealth, treasure, our inheritance.
Look: teocuitatl, oro, gold, shit of the gods
-------chalchihuitl, jade, jade, the green stone
-------quetzalli, plumas, feathers, the precious things
-------xochitl, flores, the roots of flowers —
gifts and burdens,
------the useful, the hindering,
----------the dark medicine, the glittering poison.
Pick and choose: empowering joys there are,
--------------------useless sorrows there are;
needs true — clear and lovely as water
desires true — ruddy and joyous as wine;
--------needs false and deadly as arsenic
--------desires false and deadly as knives;
swords of jewels, plows muddied and dulled by stones;
--------dazzling powders, herbs rich in visions.
Choose and sort — it is not much you can carry.

Our ancestors, our relations make council; listen:

Much have our mothers, our fathers
-------our grandmothers, our grandfathers
-------our ancestors left us:
-----------gifts are there for our blessing
-----------debts are there for our curse.

Interroga a los ancianos — son sabios, son necios.
Question the ancients — they are wise, they are fools.

Señores míos, Señoras mías — my Lords, my Ladies,
---------¿Qué verdad dicen sus flores, sus cantos?
---------What truth do your flowers, your songs tell?
---------¿Són verdaderamente bellas, ricas sus plumas?
---------Are your feathers truly lovely, truly rich?
---------¿No es el oro sólo excremento de los dioses?
---------Is not gold only the excrement of the gods?
---------Sus jades, ¿son los más finos, los más verdes?
---------Your jades, are they the finest, the most green?
---------Su legado, ¿es tinta negra, tinta roja?
---------Your legacy, is it black ink, red ink?

They offer gifts, they give teachings:
------precious, worthless
------healing, dangerous —

sort, choose — choose the precious, the healing;
-----------------discard the worthless, the harmful;
------there is much to learn, there is much to unlearn.
Choose - each offers gifts, our ancestors, our relations —
---------human, animal, plant, mineral —
------------------they are us, our relations.
Choose and sort, sort and choose
---------these gifts are of the Earth, la Tierra
---------these gifts celebrate and nurture her
---------these gifts blaspheme and destroy her
---------------------These gifts are of the Earth.
Sort and choose, choose and sort.
-----The ancients are wise, the ancients are fools;
----------riches they gathered, garbage they hoarded.
Acepta sólo lo preciso; accept only the necessary:
--------lo que te haga amplio el corazón
--------what will widen your heart
--------lo que te ilumine el rostro
--------what will enlighten your face.
Pick and choose —
------hush —
--------------in silence sort and choose, sort and choose.

Hush —
----------Look carefully - have we chosen well?
the way back is hard, full of dread
----and much have our ancestors left us.
---------What of their gifts is worth the sharing?
----------------Consider well —
------------------------the gold and the jeweled sword
--------------------is not more than the work-dulled plow.
Consider, test your choice —
---------------------------------hush —
Tasks await us on the Earth for our healing, for hers —
-------difficult, great.
---------------Choose well for the journey, for the work.
hush —
---------remember:
----------------------joy is the root of our strength,
------------- the roots that feed us come from the heart
---------the science most wise disturbs least —

-----hush — hush — hush

So, we choose what we choose.
Remember: from these gifts we make our own;
--------------we add to the hoard.
-------Do not burden the children.
Do not carry so much we cannot hold each other’s hands.
----Remember: the most precious treasure
-----------------is that which we take for the giving.

We choose what we choose —
-----make ready — take up your bundle,
-----the seeds of our making - it is light, it is heavy;
-----precious are the bones of our ancestors;
-----leaving them buried makes them no less precious;
they are of the Earth, Madre Tierra, Coatlicue,
-----------------Pachi Mama, the Earth needs them.
------ehecatl, aire, air
------tletl, fuego, fire
------atl, agua, water
------tlalli, tierra, earth.

Make ready to leave the store house, the treasure;
walk round the cavern once as the clock turns
------from the East, red and gold with knowledge
------to the South yellow and green with love
------to the West black and blue with strength
------to the North white with healing.
You are now at the threshold — it is wide, it is narrow
-----------------------------------it is dark, it is light
-----------------------------------it is steep, it is plain.
Do not look back;
leave Mictlan, reino de la muerte, realm of the dead;
-------leave the cave of the ancients,
--------------the cave of our treasure;
------------------begin the way back.
What you bring back from the land of the dead,
-------from among the bones of the ancestors,
-------------is your gift to life.
---------------------Pray the gods you choose well.

Vuelve, vuelve, return.

It is your commitment,
-----the healing of yourself and the Earth.
What will you do?
-------How will you honor the ancestors?
-------------What will you say to the children?
--------------------What will you do for justice and peace?

Vuelve, vuelve, return.
Go, vete —
------------lleva la bendición de la vida;
------------------carry the blessing of life.
------------Go, vete —
form a face, form a heart.
forma un rostro, un corazón
in ixtli, in yollotl

Go, vete, go —
que los dioses te tengan, may the gods keep you.

In whatever you do, bendice la vida,
--------------pass on the blessing of life.

Vete y bendice la vida;
-----Go and pass on the blessing of life.

Vete, ha acabado; Go, the journey is finished —

Vete y empieza un día nuevo,
-----Go and begin a new day.

-----Vete, Go.
--------------------------------------© Rafael Jesús González 2011


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