Just off the highway
the wall of the corrugated mini-mart
held artifacts of the just before now,
perfectly preserved and operational,
A few miles later
driving through the park
her childhood summer was
lost in a tangle of bramble and trees
her younger feet had
trampled over unseen
now enshrouding a river
water cycled many times
salt to rain to lazy drift
years and rivers separated
growing into no empty space
to race to the edge
and plunge in,
whooping!
Graphite, Charcoal, and Crayon on Layered Papers digitally manipulated
Graphite, Charcoal, and Crayon on Bristol Board digitally manipulated.
Graphite drawings manipulated digitally
Pencil on Bristol Board.
Lately I have been dreaming of
rising through layers within a
living form made of
desire for light.
The gentle light of
May, in between the storms
flash and rage, filtered through
just warming earth.
We rise and reaching for
the blue space and
reaching down for
into darkness for the power
that will drive us up
until we are pulled bursting
into this middle world
scattered and groping
in the overwhelming of chaos of
individuality
hoping to gather ourselves together
for another spring.
Maybe not this year, but sometime soon. Let’s make it so. Or as close to this as possible.
.
As a poet, essayist, translator, editor, and attorney, Martín Espada has dedicated much of his career to the pursuit of social justice, including fighting for Latino rights and reclaiming the historical record. Espada’s critically acclaimed collections of poetry celebrate—and lament—the immigrant and working class experience. Whether narrating the struggles of Puerto Ricans and Chicanos as they adjust to life in the United States, or chronicling the battles Central and South American Latinos have waged against their own repressive governments, Espada has put “otherness,” powerlessness, and poverty, into poetry that is at once moving and exquisitely imagistic. “Espada’s books have consistently contributed to … unglamorous histories of the struggle against injustice and misfortune,” noted David Charlton in the National Catholic Reporter. The author of over ten collections of poetry and several books of essays, multiple translations of Chicano and Latino authors, and as editor of influential anthologies like El…
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