Letting Love Be

She refuses to be chained down
Being married is not the same
as just trading your family name
It's a commitment, not a crown
He listens quiet but wears a frown
She explains, you can lose what's yours
No fear, I ask for love, nothing more
I'll always return from my journeys 
Know I am yours for eternity 
She kisses him and walks out the door.

© Odilia Galván Rodríguez

9/11 ~ Conspiracy Theorist, or Calling It As She Sees It

That morning he called hurriedly
Come here, look what's happened, do you see. ...
She just stared in shock and disbelief
A plane crashed, and crashed repeatedly.
No turning away from the TV
They couldn't speak for a long time
In horror, knowing people had died 
He comforted her. She shook her head.
How many more innocents dead?
Then she said, We committed this crime.

© Odilia Galván Rodríguez, 2012

Jesus, Judas and the Miracle of the Grey-Black Swallows

How many know, that as a child
You and young Judas used to play
and on one particular day
As you both fashioned mud birds in style
Judas seeing what you'd done, went wild
He broke and flung his to the sky
then dirt and mud fell in your eyes  
You didn't know what was the matter
couldn't believe he'd made his scatter
In a wave of your hands, mud birds fly.

© Odilia Galván Rodríguez, 2012

Décimas Para Las Almas Sin Alas / Décimas For Souls Without Wings

           
                     5        

                  finale


I'm going to sing you a story
It's so horrific, yet it's true
Be warned, these words will make you blue.
Parents guessed from very early
These killers for sport, were dirty
Police, or at least on their payroll
Will they pay for the lives they stole? 
Families demand their daughter's return
From where killers have them interned
Not one more woman! End the death toll!

One flower for each woman disappeared or murdered...

Décimas Para Las Almas Sin Alas / Décimas For Souls Without Wings

                   4
               exodus


Soon, I'm going to fly away,
There are no words to stay the pain.
Why me? "You're just more of the same."
So, you've no one to treat this way?
Yes? I hope she finds out someday --
These monsters you are in moonlight.
There is nothing to put you right
No church, no God can wash you clean
I go on home to mine serene
Knowing you'll live on in this fright.

Not One More!

Artwork by Laura Molina
http://www.lauramolina.com

Décimas Para Las Almas Sin Alas / Décimas For Souls Without Wings

                                    3
                        Full of Grace
                                    Llenas de Gracia


From their first smile, to their first dance
Our daughters fill us with new hope
Even when it's too hard to cope
We know someday they'll have a chance
For a better life, for romance
We dream our grandchildren's faces
Ancestors returned from places
Surely we will visit one day
Daughters hold the seeds to the way
Creator blessed them with this grace

The English word grace belongs to a large cluster: Grace, graceful,gracious, gratis, grateful, gratify, gratuitous, congratulate, ingratiate. All grounded in Latin gratus: pleasing, beloved, agreeable, favorable, thankful.

The Latin-derived words are a cluster of Greek words: chara, joy; chairo, to rejoice;charizomai, to give freely; charisma, gift; eucharistia, gratitude, thanksgiving; charis, grace. The core word in the Greek cluster is chara, joy.  There’s something of joy in grace.

Décimas Para Las Almas Con Alas / Décimas For Souls With Wings

                    2
Juárez, where are our daughters?


Daughters are not disposable
They are born free to two parents
No, not no sale or for clearance
Bloomed in beauty from the cradle
But one day, when they are able
Like all children they fly the nest
Hoping they'll always do their best
We worry, yet try and let go
Loving them and letting them know
We're for them until our last breath

Décimas Para Las Almas Con Alas / Décimas For Souls With Wings

                                  I

for Monica Alanís and
all the women of Juárez

So many daughters disappeared 

After working long shifts at night

At las malquiladoras rife

With innocents to commandeer 

Into a hell of hate and fear

Kidnap, rape and torture untold

Unpunished monsters remain bold

Hunt their prey with impunity

While parents suffer the cruelty

Of their children's bodies grown cold

© Odilia Galván Rodríguez, 2012

By artist: Erin Currier

Mónica Janet Alanís, student of the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez

who "disappeared"  from the university three years ago and has not been

seen since.  Her father Ricardo Alanís, is the coordinator of the Comité de 

Madres y Familiares con Hijas Desaparecidas de Ciudad Juárez, (Committee of

Mothers and Family Members of Daughters Disappeared from the City of Juárez.) 


Since 1993, hundreds of women have been murdered in the desert city of Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. 
There is no clear motive for the killings and the police seem reluctant to investigate. There is no 
accurate number of victims.  The City's newspaper El Diario puts the figure at 878 women killed 
between 1993 and 2010, but other community members say they number in the thousands.  Parents 
and supporters of the women of Juárez ask what is really going on and why can't these atrocious 
crimes be solved and stopped.  


I offer these poems in homage to the disappeared and murdered women, for their parents and loved 
ones who suffer not knowing if their child is alive or dead, or what in reality, did happen to them and why.  

note: This is my first poem for National Poetry Month -  NaPoWriMo 2012, 30 poems in 30 days.

March Senryū ~ 2012

we are all gypsies | we live everywhere and nowhere | in our minds

refurbished brownstones | witness to a world in flux | neighborhoods moved on 

Oh sun deceiving | with your big inviting smile | day's cold as ice

fear kills, love heals | do you know this in your bones? | listen to the voices

sentinels stare down | as winds rip at their faces | sky kisses their heads 

the heart of America | bejeweled in springtime | praying for peace

beauty surfaces | sometimes when you least expect | erases all doubt

someday we may not | have to resist injustice | daily pray for peace

open as we fall | our hearts through hands become wings | to fly towards the light

one days dreaming | a world of people loving | themselves and others

there's a certain light | the green shimmering of spring | through newborn shoots

those good seeds we plant | may flower into sunshine | tomorrow

sun smiles towards ocean | bay, a teal mirror | reflection of our hearts

O fine jade vine | Amazonia castles | behind your curtains

poet-warrior | gone on to his green home | forever feliz  ~ in memory of C.M.

envy, a strong loss of love | most bitter enemy | a knife turned inward

going 'round and 'round | on the down side of up | best take one step back

life's delicate | petals spring up from red dust | earth alive with promise

rainy day blues | no cure for the common cold | we eat chicken soup

we are not alone | we have our Orisahs who | shoo the demons home

ocher etched dawn | morning bled out of the night | earth refused to still ~ Nippon where sun is born | where cherry blossoms take wing

blessed to be alive | count the good things and lessons | smiling like the sun

we are the flowers | birthed after being fishes | swimming for nine months

women holding up | half the sky, no denying | we need world peace now

books saved my life | when I thought I could not live | made new worlds my home

let peace be power | put love before greed and hate | to heal the world whole

folding love into | moments birth smiles and memories | rich chocolate bundt cakes

oh insomnia | not awake or fully sleep | just beyond reach

covering cold ground | last night's snow a light blanket | tomorrow heat wave

snow flakes falling up | white delicate butterflies | disappearing acts

it's the same old news | different names and faces | the fear of "other"

the hawkins' sounding | lake Michigan about moans | can't figure winter

arranging flowers | love blooms in words on pages | changing energy

© Odilia Galván Rodríguez, 2012

February Senryū ~ 2012

February Senryū


leap on a year | make it yours prosper and grow | wildly

family | blood and the ones who take you in | sunshine and rainstorms

then you fly skyward | to a new destination | holding onto earth

the circle of life | rotates at breakneck speed | daily we pray for peace

can we forgive | what was our life as children | not pass on the sins

gone away again | fleeting moments together | her life's not the same

give her one good word | takes it in like a deep breath | exhales a poem

broken down steel mills | the city of my youth now | a blown down ghost town 

what a great life | sun is shining through the haze | a day to give thanks 

it's a long way home | when you live in three countries | your heart the anchor

he is her country | in sleep she travels to see | there are no borders

give thanks for today | tomorrow may never come | live the joy life brings

silencing women | all you hear are your own fears | echoing back

no room for fear | to seep in at night on tails | of otherwise dreams

a two year old wise | says strawberries are hearts | makes a sweet life

your heart and mine | entwined for a lifetime | one beat at a time ♥

the mottled grey sky | with sun barely peeking through | feels like my heart

no words | silence soothes the sadness | only time can heal

fly on the wings | of your songs that flew us high | into ancestors arms

our sacred sites | thin the veils between | edges of another world

we are still here | people think we've disappeared | ancestors returned

seeds bleed up through red | earth feeding her children | a blessed birthright

always on the move | winning and losing her ground | around the globe

leaves quiver | water trembles in its pool |the ground zigzagging

underwater | islands are forming | birthing up through shale

onyx colored eyes | shimmer your reflection | dark as lake bottom

catches her breath | on inhale she prays inward | needing more goodness

talk with ancestors | tell them of our plight | may they help us win the fight

against ignorance | against fear and hate | for all that is good and just

© Odilia Galván Rodríguez, 2012

January Senryū

January Senryū


back in the bay | grey waters match the sky | loved ones brighten the day

humidity lingers | on edges of this day | then folds into rain

spidery gray |the clouds close their gloved fingers | around this cool day

the rain-wind howled in | perched on thunder beings wings | marching in circles

sometimes life's beautiful | so beautiful | it seems like a dream

moonlight catches silver | highlights in gray hair | earned through survival

your essence lives on | dedication and hard work | is still flowering

born dew-struck the dawn | stained bluish it's silky skin | from greenish water

time's broken open | some families fall apart | unshielded from pain

ocean's voice so far | eddies in the moonlight | your sea still calls me

difficult mornings | hummingbirds miss their visit | when she aches for peace

everyday poems | the ones that report your day | little words that shout

behold | a faded flower | in all her beauty

circling the years | that flash of life lived fast | slow is forever

wild and fiery | she gives thanks for her life | a roaring beauty

night shadows recede | footsteps fade on cobblestones | day leaks under shades

a surge of the sea | salt reaches open windows | tears come in waves

in the dark kitchen | they dance their hearts together | songs of a lifetime

windows cracked and split | by stones shot at mango tree | ripe fruit falls frightened

opaque with stardust | a navy-blue sky pregnant | with the moon's promise

jarred from a nightmare | her room quakes in fear | she's safe under thick blankets

the edge of sandbars | rivers thick underwater | currents singing

dark and steamy streets | currents of people streaming | going nowhere

monsoon rains | whip the roofs in ropes | singing winter songs

earth will pass through clouds | watery incarnation | of icy crystals

mornings here make an entrance | sun calls you from sleep | says its a NEW day

an odd light glistens | into their bedroom window | not night nor day

brushing her arm | like feathers his fingers light | he folds her into him

you guide me in arms | we glide to the sound of waves | at the Malecon

she cried black tears | while he held her in his arms | counted their heartbeats

arms, a delicate framework | for all lovers | dancing a lifetime

© Odilia Galván Rodríguez

December Senryū

thought she was in love | in that way she'd sworn never | again ~ drowning 

te quiero como | la luna quiere la tierra |  el sol radiante 

a living creature |  fire's voice of scream and howl | roars with its own wind

like a human voice | piercing the darkest nights | Chet Baker's trumpet

she longs for moon baths | only tiny sighs of breeze | on blanket warm nights

we are never sure | of moments we are given | to last forever

seeds of forever | live in parts of the present | time is not a line

obedience | feels like a trap of childhood | control of the self

trying to break free | of our parent's straight jackets  |  their constant voices

swaddle in tight our | baby blankets cover with  |  mother's messages

spiderweb of stars | our maps to chart the future |  stars light the shadows

repelling the world | like throwing off mother's love |  a maze of rejection

life lessons repeat  |  when we refuse to take them | in stride and balance

bright sun of the soul  | burns and splits in a fit of time | never knows its end

red rimmed rock echoes | out from the deepest canyons | in your own soft voice

other blood lettings | sticky tamarind colored | bad ending's tattoos 

when all our dreaming ceases | are we awake | or dead to the world

black, red, yellow, white | the colors of our peoples | sacred directions

aching with regret | those distant summer days full | of what might have been 

beauty of poppies | bloodroot and celadine | to lull us to sleep

there are those who come | to do good in the world | then leave early

their words were flowers | bloomed from the lips of love | prayers sent skyward 

changes in the wind | to adjust be pliable | bend like the bamboo

she enters and leaves | quiet as an assassin | with part of your soul

our hearts, our children | if we're lucky let us in | to love them always

snow blooms on sidewalks | appearing as if it weren't | just summer

a treasure trove | bright stars and moonlight | of sea shells gleaming

mechanical minds | no biological spark | interface fails

blushing cactus bloom | a once a year affair | opened to a New Year

where's the hope? | just coping don't count for much | we must move forward

love is stronger | more than any medicine | it can cure the world

lights flicker and die | while winds rip wild at the night | branches whip free