"Destination Anywhere" (1-2) at Olympia, WA

"Ode to Philadelphia" 12/7/14 by Lorna Dee Cervantes

"Ode to Philadelphia" by Lorna Dee Cervantes, 12/7/14

Lorna Dee Cervantes announces the February 14th revival of MANGO Publications, her groundbreaking literary arts press first founded on July 4th, 1976, the 3rd Anniversary of the Librotraficante Caravan, and the forthcoming Premier Issue/ Anthology of The Best of MANGO Now & Then: IT'S A WHOLE NEW MANGO NOW. Also included, a stunning speech at The Alamo by Poet Laureate of San Antonio, Carmen Tafolla. Listen to entire show for history you won't get anywhere else.  Recorded March 9, 2015. Nuestra Palabra, KPFT, Houston, with Tony Diaz and Liana Lopez. (LDC 28.00)

Lorna.Dee.Cervantes_MANGO_Librotraficante_Kpft-Nuestra-Palabra_3-10-15

Not A Poem For Francisco X. Alarcón​


How can I write you a poem?
Every word flattens into sand-dollars,
Crumbles with the decay of memory;

How can I write you a poem?
Words are Old Pesos worth less than
Their silver. Your silver! How handsome!

You have become! Brother Water Moon
To my Sun On Earth, mi familia, twin-
Driven by Muse, Herself (twin to that, too),

My confidante, who knew then
How handsome you would become?
Your brilliance shows on your face

At last. How can I write you a poem? 
I want your certain flame to stay. I want 
Your, “Good evening!” again. I want your fire.

How can I stop this burning multiplicity?
I will you to the River of Light with these words –
Impudent masses, total recall. I want you here. 

Heal! You’re not ready for sainthood yet,
Carnal (as much as I know how much
That would please you). I pray with your poems.

I image in the blazing ball of Yó
Alone in his solitary cell of execution,
The cross one has to bear – and love.

Love clusters to your core, the ore
Of ages in your blesséd jaguar’s eyes (same
Blesser of my father’s final journey) (same ailment). 

(I cannot let you pass.) 
(I can/not believe.) Be live
Wire in our stalled jeep some lonely road –

Your single word on the radio inspiring – or
Whatever comes to pass. We, youngest kids
On the poetry block, now old fogies/Elders.

Let the decades come in triplets, my
Old friend. Once it was, you were the only one
Who even knew where I lived, or if….

This, too, shall come to pass.
Our Spirits, braided; our feathered path
Bound in poetry’s laser wire, our Spirit-To-All

Deliverance: the largest life of all
Is yet to live. You have yet to live
To write your poem that saves us all.  


Lorna Dee Cervantes
1/13/16
Olympia, WA

LornaDee

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