New poetry chapbook! Poets against War & Racism | Poetas contra la guerra y el racismo

Order your copies of Poets against War & Racism here.

Here's the first in a series of chapbooks that we will be publishing to read and work together to raise our voices and ink (real & virtual) against the calamaties of capitalism: war and racism.

At the core of our words is the belief that we can create the world, small and big, horizontal and communal, where we are safe to be ourselves, free and self-determined.

To get there we have to create and practice the new language.

So here is a small offering by five poets who are against war & racism and for deep community and justice.

Get one for yourself and get two or more for your friends and families.

Click here to get copies of Poets against War & Racism.

Ayotzinapa [the place of small turtles]

Ayotzinapa [lugar de las tortuguitas]

Para los 43 normalistas desaparecidos de Ayotzinapa | For the 43 student-teachers disappeared from Ayotzinapa

Ayotzin
tortuguita
de 43 heridas
americatzin
continente dulce
contaminado por
un imperio podrido
de 43 guerras sin fin
ahora
43
familias
43
desaparecidos
43
imperios destruidos
por
43
maestros
43
lugares
alrededor
del mundo
que se juntan
en el rincón
de américa
llamado
guerrero
ombligo lunar ...

| * |

Ayotzinapa [Place of the small turtles]

Ayotzin
precious turtle
with 43 wounds
beloved américa
rotting empire
with 43 wars without end
43
families
43
disappeared
43
empires to be destroyed
by
43
teachers
43
places
from around the world
converge
in a corner
of América
called
warrior
belly button of the moon...

Soy del otro lado | I am from the other side

Soy del otro lado
del lado bravo
del lado tuyo
del lado izquierdo
donde tengo el nido
para tus abrazos
Soy del otro lado
donde los muros
son las sombras
que persiguen
a los policías
que defienden
a los tiranos del mercado
Y el sol está
a nuestro lado
el lado de la tierra
el lado de las lágrimas con sus sonrisas
el lado de la luna llena y vacía
el lado que es combustible para las estrellas
el lado donde somos íntegros
el lado que divide a las bestias
adomándolas con nuestra luz
el lado que nos abriga
contra la rabia del dinero
Soy de ese lado
con sus seis direcciones y sus siete espacios
donde los abrazos abren cielos y puertas
donde los llantos espantan a las fronteras
y las mujeres nos dan su espalda
para cargarnos y sobrevivir
Del lado donde nuestros desaparecidos
reaparecen
Soy del otro lado
del lado tuyo...

[Abril 2016]

| * |

I am from the other side

I am from the other side
from the side of the Bravo
from your side
from the left side
where I have a nest
for your arms
I am from the other side
where the walls
are shadows
that chase down
the police
that defend
the tyrants of the markers
And the sun is
on our side
on the side of the earth
on the side of tears with smiles
on the side of the of the full and empty moon
on the side that is fuel for the stars
on the side where we are whole
on the side that divides the beasts
taming them with our light
on the side that holds us
against the rage of money
I am from that side=
with its six directions and seven spaces
where our embrace open up skies and doors
where our cries threaten borders
and the women give us their backs
to carry us and to survive
From the side where our disappeared
reappear
I am from the other side
from your side ...

[April 2016]

The four directions of my border blues

I miss
Tacuache,
Homer,
Johnson,
Crow
the four directions
of my blues
the four musics
of my valley
the guitarist
the drummer
the friend
geniuses all
beheaded by whites
loved by Mexicans
Elvira and her sister, too
The tula fog
the cries
for the mother
The music was our music
we knew we would never see each other again
never gave up the blues
never surrendered to the night of our long separation
Tacuache bellowing,
hair down to his hips,
I want pussah, pussah
Homer roaring in laughter
I am in the back seat remembering us all
Where's Cinthia?
She was my outcast, my future woman
I would love and love always
eternity had her names, ours
Johnson was a madman
with a Gibson strapped across his shoulder
Crow the music organism
Tacuache spirit armed with spirit to pound away our fears
Homer the friend we would never give up
Then we left each other
alone
We left each other
and ever since
music is
incomplete
unfinished tenderness...

What remains after us?

Poetry is what remains

after we make love,
after we march for justice,
after we make little revolutions against big injustices,
after we paint and color the canvasses of our skin,
when we make peace with the rage of the system,
when we kiss
... the hands of our elders,
.. the mouth of our lovers,
.. the nose of the new born

Poetry is what remains
after we hold hands or smile or talk and listen to one another,
when our hands glance each other's shadows,
when the moon is full and we are empty.

Poetry is what remains
after we have lived
many suns together.

Come make poetry with us
Poetry that swallows the wind to make us rain
Poetry that touches our faces with the hands of the dust
Poetry that makes craters in the soul of your heart
Poetry that defies bullets and the shadows of mourning
Poetry made by the hands and the eyes of rainbow warriors who struggle to make springtime the only season of our dreams

Poetry that buries the war dead with the words and cries of our elders who never gave up
Poetry that makes love to overthrow capitalism and its war machinery of wage labor, mining, fossil fuel and paved over acquifers
Poetry that is the flower and bread of organizing our utopias and seeds
Poetry that is on the lips of the loved ones,
.. the first kiss of humanity,
.. the first kiss of revolutions,
.. the kiss of our ancestors and newborn.

Poetry that says never again to war and hate, extraction and exploitation of our deepest life gestating in the earth herself.

Our dreams do not fit in
voting urns
banks

Our dreams fit
in our hearts and word of peace, sisterhood and justice...

--arnoldo garcía