Poetry

The following paired poetry and visual art works are part of 40 such pairings in the Columbia (Missouri) Art League’s Interpretations IV celebration. “Farewell to a Daughter Returning to Mother Africa” is pared-down from a bilingual poem that first appeared in The Corazón Land Review (Latino Literature of the Heartland, St Louis MO, Christopher Chablé, editor), Issue 3, Fall 2015, pages 8 and 10. The Spanish version, “Despedida Africana,” appeared on pages 9 and 11.

Social Justice

We are obliged to look inside ourselves, and to how we look at others. The year 2020, and surely its aftermath, has shaken how we perceive others and our comfortable attitudes towards “Justice for All.”  (We also question our security—financial, health-wise, and societal.)

I am apart, but also very much a part 
Of humanity, of each Jane and John Doe
The mirror shows I’m no work-of-art
Just a face I present to each sister and bro’

And looking inward I see also my soul
The motive force of my flesh and bones
It confirms the science I always extoll
We are equal but never identical clones

In spite of migrations and conquest
We are still indeed one united species
Ignore those who claim to be the best
Shatter their myths, blast them to pieces

Imagine, we eight billion swarming ants
Penetrating each crevice and highway
But we as conquerors?  Please don’t rant.
Brethren, our dominion is in deep disarray

Accept the miracle of “the protean race”
That each brings a strand to a beautiful quilt
Avoid rancor, keeping “them in their place”
Don’t erode the base on which humanity’s built

Social Justice: 
Is the fabric of our identity
It keeps us all intertwined
Its lack is the ultimate obscenity
Without it we reject humankind

Dame Lady Spain

In March 2001, at the end of my sabbatical stay in the lab of Dr. Tomás Ruiz-Argüeso at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, I was honored with a going-away party. Typically, it included dancing, jamón serrano, and other wonderful forms of Spanish hospitality.  For the occasion, I tried to write a poem of farewell and appreciation. My hosts and lab mates paid me the great favor of not laughing at my gaffes. 

I thought of Spain as a lovely, fiery, and strong lady, but one with endearing vulnerabilities.

Española, Dame of mysterious identity 
Tell but a part of all you might be
While I linger, a helpless drone at your feet 
Tell and surround me, in honeyed aura so sweet

Also take me on a path of heaven-spiced soil 
Bordered with parsley, garlic, anointed with oil
You mixture of signals, darkly dazzling flower
Aroma mysterious, of penetrating power

Immersing me in catacombs of light and dark
Ancient chambers of colors both soft and stark
Of thee I have savored only a lace most ethereal 
'Tis but a thread of your shawl of magic material

A shawl, forged o'er time, of stone and of steel
That grazes my soul with a silky lace feel 
Because history ferocious did let you endure
And distilled to the present, so sweet, if not pure

It gave you your voices so varied and mixed
I stare in the face of your serenade, transfixed
Your hot Siren's breath demands my return 
In your chorus of fused blood, I willingly burn

I do accept that you always hold sway
I'll heed your call, I’ll not stay away
Because a thousand guilds did truly bond
Over days immemorial into one song

That is the sweet cacophony of your gnarled web
In which I'm your prey, with joy more than dread
Doña España, my gratitude overwhelms
For being received within your vast realm

I sincerely thank your warm, sweet reception
Tis engrossing just to make these reflections
That I can only express with inadequate verse
But a blink of a shooting star in your universe