riverbabble 18, winter 2011

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riverbabble 18 --------winter 2011

Icicles by Lauren Howard

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riverbabble 18

Winter Issue

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Featured Poem

Ixchel, la diosa luna/Ixchel, the Moon Goddess

Ruth Pérez Aquirre:
Ixchel, la diosa luna (Spanish)

Nina Seranno:
Ixchel, the Moon Goddess (English translation)


Poetry

Rafael Jesús González:
Canción de cuna: las luces de Marfa /
Cradle Song: the Lights of Marfa
Consejo/Adice
Conversión de un tamborilero/Conversion of a Drummer

Laura McCullough:
To the God of Pryrography
The Small God of Winter, a Little God of Temperatures


April Michelle Bratten:
White Flowers in Winter 2000
Nighttime Range

Suchoon Mo: Snow Flake

jd Daniels: Ghazal of the Now

Timothy Gager: When It Is Still Winter

Maude Larke: Center Congregational Church/19 January 1979

Stephanie Bryant Anderson: White Ground, Glares

Colin Dardis: Deepest Breath

Joanne Faries: Innocuous

Zoë Gabriel: Pendulum, Not Tightrope

Morgan Harlow: Accumulation

Travis Hedge Coke: Impromptu 49er, 1:25 a.m. Los Angeles

Robert Jacoby: the voices in the hallway I'll never tell you about

Jocelyn Paige Kelly: Soul Flakes

Anthony Adrian Pino: Of Storms and Cities

Tim Tomlinson: Gulf Stream

Ekphrastic Poems

William Landis: The Nude The Sea The Sky Standing Open

Aleathia Drehmer: Cy Twombly / Animula Vagula, 1979


Fiction
Jon Sindell: Donuts

Anthony Adrian Pino: A Meditation on Snow: The Death of J. J. Finkelstein

Eric Prochaska: Shadows in Midgard

Renos Nicos Spanoudes: Status

Tim Tomlinson: Just Tell Me Who It Was


Flash Fiction

Ted Chiles: Lot's Wife

Francine Witte: Halfway Up the Mountain

Chella Courington: Bad Night

Joyce Lautens O'Brien: Dystopia

Michael K. Gause: The Work of Snow

Essay
Jannie M. Dresser: Is the Music Over? Has Free Verse Made Poets Tone Deaf?

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(communes with the night) Face reminds me of his poor mother. In the shady wood. The deep white breast. Ferguson, I think I caught. A girl. Some girl. Best thing could happen to him. (he murmurs.) . . . swear that I will always hail. ever conceal, never reveal, any part or parts, art or arts, . . . (he murmurs) . . . in the rough sands of the sea . . . a cabletow's length from the shore . . . where the tide ebbs . . . and flows . . .

James Joyce, Ulysses, p. 4901-4954

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riverbabble
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Acquarius

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------------Acuario

A Acuario,
---el airoso,
------fijo en su servicio,
lo vigila Urano desde lejos;
Saturno le pesa como plomo
y su luz como granate ardiente
destella en el cántaro de amatista
que carga Acuario,
----sus tobillos, sus pantorrillas
----bañados en el aire fijo
----de sus ideales luminosos.



---------© Rafael Jesús González 2011




-------------Aquarius

Aquarius,
---the graceful,
------at ease in his service,
is watched by Uranus from afar;
Saturn weighs on him like lead
& its light like a burning garnet
bounces sparks on the amethyst jar
that Aquarius carries,
----his ankles, his calves
----bathed in the fixed air
----of his luminous ideals.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2011
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Full Moon Over Mexico City

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---Luna llena sobre la Cd. de México



La luz de la luna plena
----cascabeles en las mejillas
-------se rompe en las ventanas,
----------------------los espejos,
----------------------las vidrieras,
----en las escaleras del Templo Mayor,
------------las torres de la catedral.
La marca del conejo
-----------que lleva en la mejilla
parece incitar la embriaguez
pero no se le puede achacar
la locura del nuevo Tenochtitlan.



---------© Rafael Jesús González 2011







---Full Moon Over Mexico City


The light of the full moon
----------bells on her cheeks
breaks on the windows,
------------the mirrors,
------------the windshields,
on the stairs of the Great Temple,
--------the towers of the cathedral.
The mark of the rabbit
------------she bears on her cheek
seems to incite drunkenness
but she cannot be blamed
for the madness of the new Tenochtitlan.



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



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Noche de reyes/12th night

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Adoration of the Magi, Andrea Mantegna 1495-1505

------------------ Magos


Pensar que yo, Baltasar de Caldea,
------tenedor de las cosas sacras,
------dejé los observatorios,
------cargado de incienso,
------para ir allí.
Aun hasta al punto de encuentro fue largo;
para Melchor de Nubia cargado de oro,
para Gaspar de Tarso cargado de mirra,
fue aun más largo.
-----Y de allí a Judea
-----y más allá condujo el lucero —
-----------a la morada de animales,
-----------lugar natal del infante mendigo.
Si era dios,
---como todo dios,
---------ha de haber llegado a mal fin.
¿Qué significaban los agüeros?
-----Tal vez sería el viaje mismo,
---------oír de los leones de Nubia,
---------de los ríos de Tarso;
y sobre todo,
-----sí, tal vez sobre todo,
---------- el ofrendar.



---------© Rafael Jesús González 2011





---------------Magos


To think that I, Balthazar of Chaldea,
----keeper of the sacred things,
----left the observatories,
----laden with frankincense,
----to come there.
Even to the point of meeting it was long;
for Melchior of Nubia laden with gold,
for Gaspar of Tarshish laden with myrrh,
it was longer.
---And from there to Judea
---and the star led on —
--------to the abode of animals,
--------birthplace of the infant beggar.
If he was a god,
-----like all gods,
-----he must have come to a bad end.
What meant the auguries?
----Perhaps it was the trip itself,
-------to hear of the lions of Nubia,
-------of the rivers of Tarshish;
and above all,
----yes, perhaps above all,
-----------the gifting.



----------© Rafael Jesús González 2011
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(first published in Dear Winter: Poems for the Solstice;
Marie Harris, Ed.; Northwood Press, Thomaston, Maine 1984;
Author’s © copyrights)
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Full Moon of the Winter Solstice

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Luna llena del solsticio invernal

Esta noche más larga de las noches la luna plena del desierto es tan brillante que despierta a las cabras en sus corrales y prolonga los aullidos de los coyotes. Ilumina los cerros y las ciudades gemelas del paso del norte divididas por el río encadenado y muros coronados de alambre espinado construidos tanto de la codicia y la miseria como de cemento. Es heraldo del Sol que a lento paso alargará los días.

En la hora más nueva del día la luna en su más llena oscureció, apagó su luz por completo ocultando su rostro en la sombra de la Tierra. ¿Sería que la madrina se avergüenza del mundo que hemos creado de nuestra codicia y arrogante ignorancia, este mundo compuesto de injusticia y violencia?

No obstante ahora luce la luna en todo su fulgor cargada de esperanza que el Sol alargando los días nos ilumine el camino hacia un mundo mejor.

© Rafael Jesús González 2010

© by tgagephot (ihveissues) 2010

Full Moon of the Winter Solstice

This longest night of nights the full desert moon is so bright that it wakens the goats in their pens and prolongs the howls of the coyotes. It lights the mountains and the twin cities of the pass of the north divided by the shackled river and walls crowned with thorned wire and constructed as much of greed and misery as they are of cement. It is herald of the Sun which will slowly lengthen the days.

In the newest hour of the day, the moon at its fullest darkened, completely put out its light hiding its face in the shadow of the Earth. Could it be that the godmother is ashamed of the world we have created of our greed and arrogant ignorance, this world made of injustice and violence?

Nevertheless, now the moon shines in all its brilliance loaded with hope that the Sun lengthening the days may light the way toward a better world.

© Rafael Jesús González 2010

Atlas Celeste, John Bevis 1786

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Winter Solstice & Capricorn

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Winter Solstice & Capricorn

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------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 2010



------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 2010

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Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe

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Juan Diego's cloak

------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 2010

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 2010

by Robert Lentz
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