¡My Bilingual Poetry Book is Out!

Friends and family…amigos y familia…

Upon returning to my native New York City in early 2006, I began putting the foggy pieces of my earliest years together by buying, on CD, much of the wonderful music my father used to play at home (at full blast) during my childhood in the 1970s. It was a very haunting experience at times, as songs I hadn’t heard in over thirty years, were as familiar to me in 2007 and they had been in 1977. Very haunting, but such is the power of music.

I began writing down the memories that the music pulled out from my subconscious, in various abstract and bilingual pieces/pedazos, and kept them in a secret file that eventually grew to over sixty poems–from simple haikus to dense English/Spanish free verse. Before I knew it, a baby book came into focus.

I was fortunate to have help when it came closer to publishing it–a millions gracias to Larry La Fountain, David Caleb Acevedo, Armando Rendón, Bronco Castro and the almighty Alfredo Villanueva, who all lent a hand at helping with the editing, and at times even rewriting, of my Spanish text. They are all writers and poets of the highest order and I am honored that they even considered helping me! Investigate them.

*If you would like to securely purchase the $11.99 paperback directly from the Create Space publishing service I used to create the book, click here:

To buy an Amazon.com, click here:

And now I will bestow upon you one of my favorite poems from the collection (*only about five of the 60+ poems have been previously published or posted publicly), “Puerto Rican Earthling/Puertorriqueño terrícola”:

        

Puerto Rican Earthling

(in response to Bartolomé de Las Casas’s

A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies)

Puerto Rican alien

Mighty horses, cruel men

Hungry and without women

Taíno brother

Taína sister

No thirst for power

Gold for wearing

On this pure body

This body born of

Sand, water, jungle

And what we are now

Kings and savages both

Puerto Rican alien

Men of inhuman gods

Crazy and proud demons

Ghosts that dance and kill

And kiss and fuck

In volcanic blood

Slithering like serpents

That celebrate the sanctuary

Of this heart

Puerto Rican alien

The ecstasy of this body

Of this skin prison

(This soul demands release!)

Of flesh and eyes disgraced

This mystery, this miracle

Lost monster amongst these barbaric

Tribes of the world, tribes of

Puerto Rican alien

Race of all races

That sucks on

Blood that burns

Blood that drowns

Sickening ogres

(And without you

What in hell am I?)

Puerto Rican alien

Assassin and murdered am I

Devil and saint am I

Night and day am I

Thief and hero am I

Death and life am I

Mind, womb and graveyard

(And you are both dead and alive

In it with me)

Puerto Rican alien

This desecrated altar

This devastated village

This pillaged, empty heart

Knows not how to sing

Neither the coquí song abundant

Nor the hymns of saints brought

By righteous murderers

This burning mountainside

This holy and hybrid soul, this

Beauty without equal

We give welcome to you

Galician, Roman, Moor, Taíno

Irishman, Frenchman, Scotsman

Dominican, Cuban, Dutchman, Mexican

American, Englishman, Chinaman, Venezuelan

Portuguese, German, Lebanese, Italian

Igbo, Bantu, Yoruba

Canary Island pirate

Puerto Rican Earthling

     Puertorriqueño terrícola

(en respuesta a la Brevísima relación de la destrucción de las Indias,

por Bartolomé de Las Casas)

Puertorriqueño ajeno

Fuertes caballos, hombres crueles

Con hambre y sin mujeres

Hermano taíno

Hermana taína

Sin sed de poder

Oro solamente para llevar

En este cuerpo puro

Este cuerpo que nació de

Arena, río, selva

Y lo que somos ahora son

Reyes y salvajes por igual

Puertorriqueño ajeno

Hombres de dioses inhumanos

Demonios locos, orgullosos

Espectros que bailan y matan

Y besan y chichan

En sangre volcánica

Arratrándose como culebras

Que celebran el santuario

De este corazón

Puertorriqueño ajeno

El éxtasis de este cuerpo

De este cárcel de piel

(¡Este alma demanda liberación!)

De carne y ojos desgraciados

Este misterio, este milagro

Monstruo perdido entre

Estas bárbaras tribus del mundo

Puertorriqueño ajeno

Raza de todas las razas

Que chupa

Sangre que quema

Sangre que ahoga

Ogros asquerosos

(¿Y sin tí

quién carajo soy yo?)

Puertorriqueño ajeno

Asesino y asesinado soy yo

Diablo y santo soy yo

Noche y día soy yo

Ladrón y héroe soy yo

Muerte y vida soy yo

Mi mente es útero y cementerio

(Y tú eres muerto y vivo

a mi lado)

Puertorriqueño ajeno

Este altar profanado

Esta aldea devastada

Este saqueado y desprovisto corazón

No sabe como cantar

Ni las canciones de abundantes coquís

Ni los himnos de los santos que trajeron

Virtuosos asesinos

Esta ladera quemándose en la montaña

Esta alma sagrada e híbrida, esta

Belleza sin igual

Te damos la bienvenida a tí

Gallego, romano, moro, taíno

Irlandés, francés, escocés

Dominicano, cubano, holandés, mexicano

Americano, inglés, chino, venezolano

Portugués, alemán, libanés, italiano

Igbo, bantu, yoruba

Pirata de las islas Canarias

Puertorriqueño terrícola

 

         (traducción por David Caleb Acevedo)

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