February 27, 2017. I’m stepping back into 2007 for this image and poem, which feel appropriate given prevalent prickly agitation. This image was taken on Alamo Mountain, near El Paso, on a hike to view ancient rock art images left by a culture challenged daily with adversity. Perhaps we, too, will learn to live with constant conflict. But maybe we can bridge polarized opinions – it’s a challenge worth considering.
October 14, 2016. I’ve been immersed in another poetry class with Lorraine Mejia @ http://www.lorrainemejia.com/ – this one working with Latin American Poets. Wonderful exposures to poems I otherwise might not encounter, plus stimulus to write poems I otherwise might not. The poem below is indirectly in response to reading Federico Garcia Lorca’s “Song Of The Barren Orange Tree” – and in gratitude for the live oak tree in my front yard. I offer this in explanation:
Presumptuous, yes
Nevertheless descriptive
of years together
December 4, 2015. I am spinning with the heart-breaking understory of a young mother compelled to sacrifice herself for a cause she deemed greater than her own baby – left with grandmother on her way to kill and be killed. Compassion for the child comes easily. As for the mother? Much tougher. Yet nevertheless a little peace crept in while observing the Chiapas sage in first rays of sunshine. I don’t know the hows to stem violence, defensiveness, distrust. But I feel certain hate and relaliation are counterproductive. I won’t go there.
