From one gut wrenching moment to the next you breathe, you breathe, you breathe
and listen–to the bird’s song and water trickling until the leaves become leaves and you become you, again

Aveces mi corazón cómo un cometa
sale de mi pecho y se desplaza con amor

sobre tu estancia temporaria
con tanta alegría que se

que el vivir es la jornada del verbo amar

My heart’s breath smells of  life and of sun
in the days when heat is inhaled
The zephyr inside refreshes my existence

Outside the moon, moon
is in glare

Today Lorca dies again
and the mantle covers more than one face
in more than one country
under this same moon
We live

Today in front of the monitor, the desire to have Kaufman's ships set sail
exists deeply in the sea of ​​our collective consciousness

In your heart exists a breath and a life with a sun.
The zephyr moves ships.  
It doesn't matter if the moon, moon rises

<<Es que nace un mundo nuevo >>
–Mundo Nuevo,Lila Downs y Alexis Puentes

Si, lo puedo sentir en la forma que siento la rotación del planeta–

Es verdad nace un mundo nuevo
y descuelga frases antiguas, y surge como contrincante
con su paz permutando toda las previas formas de comprender y operar con algo más lleno
más bello

viene erradicando fronteras
y con su amor deshaciendo los límites impuestos por un mundo viejo lleno de miedo
miedo de vivir
miedo de morir
miedo del infierno
miedo de no ser suficiente
miedo de escasez
Miedo

Se muere todo esto que perpetua el medio
y nace uno mundo nueve

un mundo lleno de amor
donde solo su calidez impeliera
y naturalmente desde nuestras entrañas surja

y no necesita que tú lo llames
este mundo viene entre nos
mira las criaturas las flores los peces y los niños ellos son el mundo nuevo igual que tú

y desde adentro toma sus manos  
tu costado
tu vida
y tú ser

es que somos el mundo nuevo

En tu luz madrugadora se caba
La oscuridad y en el abrir
De tus ojos se despierta la conciencia

In my pit of sorrow
I grew wings looking at you

the flight of winged sparrows above
me common to the city dweller was a miracle  to me

I will write until there is nothing left of me until everything is poured out and given. Until it’s over: these hands &   their warmth.
Until someone else comes to let us know what their world has been too
Until my writing is of no need in a world of peace
in a world of beauty
in a world of compassion
Until we have conquered no one’s land except that of our own mind and laid eyes on the cruelty and ailments just as much as on the kindness and cures inside us

Make the decision to see all and pick to nurture only what will bring peace on earth.

I do not want to have the same seasonal wardrobe fashion
that everyone else has
I do not want the trendy jewelry
or to  make the same pose in front of a camera
I want clothes I can wear that suit
my mood
earrings with a story behind them that you can hear  
a candid that captures corner smiles

Frankly,I do not want to be anyone else
you can take
the “fit in” trophy and put it on your mantle because I am glad, glad, glad
Gleeful and cheerful that  I get this opportunity
To live and  to walk in this skin
with these gifts and this inner light

There sleeps in the seeping ounce
of the tree burned to carbon
that made charcoal
a chance for me to take any
and all scraps of paper
I can find in my room
and put them to good use

There sleeps in the back of my mind
fragments of light
and sensations of summer
crystallizing into thought

"I want to hike four trails, around an island." I
say
but the speedy winding and the great illusion of time ticks me down
"I can only hike three"

The fourth I'll sit at its base, with my scrappy notebooks and sketch.
the burned vine will create trees    
      what immaculate a thought
to "good use"
the trunk that we took to shred and make this sheet,
to "good use", too
it'll be the paper under the black soot
when I draw

here sleeps my mind in the dark coal
ever luminous below the incomplete combustion of
hydrocarbons and the explosive nature
of untamed
emotions

"But I want to hike four trails.
Maybe, I'll have to come back"

a lime bursting
cascaron agrio I bite
where is the mescal
and motown at 2:00 am

my once in a lifetime
sets like a sun over me
as I learn to love
someone else slowly

the emptiness of a room spoke
to me. For over a year, it dragged
me into a closet, it buried
me in winter sweaters, ruthless
wired bras, and band shirts reminding
me of him

my once in a lifetime sorrow sinks
into the past as I reach
for someone else’s hand, grasping
tenderly I see my sun rising

it is now a once in a lifetime thing, too

Holy water rising from your skin
as you scrub circularly
skin cells are dethroned
–there are no rulers here...
   ...we stand here side by side

The soft sun rising
reflects from the small containers
inside the shower caddy
the many colored creams and the one deodorant you keep lopsided
seem agreeable in size
–different shapes look good together...
   ...we stand here side by side

When you look around you notice
That the warm water that rose
liquified over the walls making it seems
as if they were sweating those little droplets
that accumulated all round the bathroom
fogging the mirrors
– the same thing takes many forms...
    ...we stand here side by side

Unraveling the trangled string of a swimsuit bra takes patience. The old wire ones were too suffocating even for something as slow breathing as a breast
two nippes hanging in the cold
await the earth of cloth you are to unravel
–present and future moving closely...
   ...we stand here side by side

<<Hoye Lucas dicen que parece que tú y yo estamos locos>> le dijo al un cuarto solo

<<Vaya que gran illusion qué hay la separación>> le contestó
Lo que se supone que no es la nada

and they escaped the weight of darkness peering over their shoulders
where do these people go,
what belongings do they pack
is there a limit on the heaviness of ones' soul

Can they bring love as parting gift? Hide it in their handkerchiefs, and then go

Oh joy you make me smile

you with each day charm me
woo me into more bliss
keep me laughing

Thankful for all living

I name it, a little prayer deep in my heart.
I call it forth, what is coming, is coming on foot.
Whether it takes days or years,
I have set my course; the intent is strong.
There is no wavering here;
the sails are already high
–and the wind is too wise.

Lo próspero crecerá de tu palma
izquierda
arrasando con la tierra piel de tu mano  
convirtiéndose en volcán
que revienta en un bello bienal

Tus uñas sé conocerán como hojas y la desdicha no más te deshacer a
sentirás la profundidad de tus años

Calmada mente te regarás
y con una fecundidad
de tú adquirida paciencia
darás rosetas

Y yo en ese segundo año
regresaré
para si quiera verte en flor

The doors’ music plays from the speaker at a pub near namsan tower and friends point at me “L.A woman” and we laugh.

when I first listened to this song I was 13
i guess I am a woman and I am from L.A

Mi alma es brisa
que carga el fuego
su viento invisible
sostiene mi mundo

My heart loves a young man who dances salsa with me
he said “wow”
at the live band
I love two people at the same time
May time help me love only one

Nosso corpo pega as barreiras
e con sua mistura de sangue
e as desfaz

Every time someone I love dies I become more certain that they are the same thing: this birth and this death thing=illusions
and that time can also be added to this category because it folds
and it feels like past, present and future dissolve
they drop into a singularity
perhaps all occurring at the same time

Quiero leer la literatura de la onda
quiero asomarme en otro mundo

From a distance
can you see it
rock stacked over rock
Each rock a prayer
asking the wind to spread it

It’s time to clock out
ride the sweet waves,
surf the quiet ocean of your awareness
and feel the flow of life taking you where you need to go.

Stop thinking.
You cannot tell the ocean where to go.

Abrupt is the formicidae’s descend
into plummeting disapproval

this brisk ant mountaineering
over the hot terrain of my left foot

Is  not brushed off by my partner hand but my his fear of  a “crawly thing”

…
I tell him of my childhood-
alone in the garden with the animals - my mother in our home depressed- the plants and the insects were my friends.

I used to play with ants.
…

“ a life is a life no matter how small” i read in one of Dr. Seuss’ books. I would look at myself in the mirror– a worn out pink stool below my small eight year old feet. I was  in the third grade, but I couldn’t sit with my bottom on the chairs. If I did only my eyes and forehead would rest above the table. I so I began to sit over my knees and propel myself forward when I needed to grab my rolling pencil. Small hands reaching forward.

…
What is it about small things that makes someone try to dominate them to try and tell them where their place should be. When I saw the ants so steadfast move through their course I started to tear.
…
I realize now why, why I couldn’t let him step on the ant after brushing it off. Why I take take insect out of my office or my home in Tupperware.  

My life, their life  and our lives are  miraculous even if they are brief, even if from above we seem like those ants  scattered over green and brown splotches of earth; our cars lined on an overpass mimicking their lines.

(there is not such things as a small life)

Ideally, what would you like to be?  

At this point in time, I would like to be a leaf or better yet a slow moving tree
–firmly rooted and pacing through the rich moist soil.

Busco el equilibrio como si fuera una destinación
como si no fuera balanza y yo la aprendiza que tiene que agregar, remover y volver a colocar pedacitos de mi

pertenezco a mi misma y yo misma quiero estar cerca de el balanceo
que mantiene mi ser abierto y tierno
no aspiro a ser amada
no aspiro ser admirada
no aspiro ser la excepción
y tampoco no aspiro a nunca morir

solo busco equilibrio
solo busca estar aquí donde estoy

No veils and no guards at the door
–just me standing there, open...
transparent like a window who cannot hide the weather; all eyes can see through me.

I see you all like mirages
in a room
you become clear
the further in time
that I travel away
from you

A sparrow begetting birch
soaring lightly
on the grace of wind

today
I set another boundary
painted his face with forgiveness


I whispered lovingly
"thank you for raising me."

today, I unfriended him
my reflection answered
"But you look like his mother."

my jawline with its sharp line
history seems as linear, but I do not
want to fall in its linearality  

my will flutters among
the company of monarchs
that have come to represent
the migrant women and men
of the Americas  

a monarch like
my grandmother once was
while she inevitably stood
in front of her mirror, I am placed
in front of mine

all my aspirations
grow wings and set
their destination for a healing
climate

"thank you for raising me
but I cannot let you
break my wings, too"

thank you,thank you
thank you

I love you
so I let you go
here,
beyond this
I might not be able to add beauty to your life
and I want there to be beauty for you
I do not want here to be unnecessary struggle
or shame or sadness
may your will be done

If I cannot add joy or a smile on your face
what is indeed the point
I may not be the best thing for you
so I lovingly with all my heart
let you go

human attachment released so I as a parting gift can hand you love
beautiful things will come to you
I am sure of it

eternally and foolishly,
– your cheerleader princess

so much of me is being destroyed
so much being hammered off my copper implements  
so much is being excavated
so much is being fished out of my Patzcuaro heart
so much water seeping through the dirt of Quiroga
so much gold is found when sieving my Californian rivers
so much crumbling at the altar of life
so  much cleansing me
so much is gone mamá that can you recognize my zapateo  
last time I stumbled y pare but today each zapatazo
retumbé

Me gusta poesía en español
me recuerda a los momentos en mi adolecía  cuando my madre y yo íbamos solas a la playa
cuando mojadas nos acostábamos sobre la arena leyendo Sor Juana o Neruda

Me gustan las guitarras
me calman
siempre ha ávido músicos en la familia
para mi no es casa sin música
sin que alguien cante o toque algo
Segovia, Metallica, Violeta Parra, Led Zeppelin, Caetano, Ry Cooder, Pedro Infante
baladas, corridos, salsa, bachata, samba, cumbia
no hay alegria hasta que se libera el cuerpo sobre la pista de baile o en la cocina con una cuchara de palo batiendo el mole poblano
mi sangre mixta a heredado tantos sabores
y tanta riqueza de ideas y colores
que no cambiaria nada
me gusta a mi quien soy
y quiero seguir creciendo
y amando ser una ser humano

The past has swiftly receded into its bed of intangible form and the future rests eyes closed,still to be awakened

Let them like children rest
without being disturbed

Today belongs to your limbs, to your breath pouring life and presence into your being.
Today is here, lids open,
eyes which become your own
Life sinking back into everything around you
Appreciate, knowing that even the small things are of value, are of worth.

A life yet to come
I think this world is so beautiful  
even when most things do not go my way
I linger under a ginkgo tree mesmerized
at at how lovely the yellow leaves in winter
look against the night sky

after this lifetime –make me light
after I have emptied myself out –disperse me
.









.
I can feel how impermanent this world is
and how solid and unchanging the unseeable one truly is

Don’t die. Listen to new music. funk’s electro baby phonk. Donate your clothes. Get some bright shirts and some daisy socks. Read a book.buy a nice triangular pencil. Get said pencil scribble,write and draw on restaurant napkins. Add  a new city on your new list of must visit before I croak. Turn up the dial to an idiosyncratic volume on commutes. move your arms a little no penalty will be given for dancing. Smile at the stranger next to you.  Be as indifferent as the sun to whether stranger smiles back or not .But don’t die not from old age. At least not that kind of old age.

Come closer. Listen. The heart pumps the same. Don’t die as an antiquity. Buy an old vintage scarf and make yourself new. Hug your friends like you have always been a hugger.

There is no such thing as “normal”;
When you try to create “normal”,
“Normal” chokes everyone involved.

It is their eyes–
everything around me I want to nourish until it is bright
and full of it’s own loving light
–shining through

Where ever the water leads, I go … trickle trickle, trickle no longer ice
no longer thick and sturdy
and willing to carry anything
light and fluid I rest
to nourish what’s around wherever I go

Sweet and luminous sit the flowers
over the crown of your head

song-ridden mornings bring me old lullabies you sang

so close you are, I simply smile now

Es que no se acaba esto de ser
es que continúa y atraviesa espinas
parte no en dos
pero en infinito nuestro mismo ser

Es que ahora siento las piedras a lo igual que a los árboles y una saber que soy todo me llena
y mi trabajo es ser quien soy

Do not disappear again

above us all the stars remain luminous
bellied laughs, and curtain smiles that open to the gleaming sun
shining between your two front teeth

Do not disappear again

above us all there lines tied to kites
like on the day I went to a old place in south of Seoul
next to Hwaseong fortress
there the kids flew kites and I tied a small white paper along with others as a prayer

Do not disappear again

Above us all there should be a mirror reflecting our own beauty, old pictures taken years before make us sigh
we didn’t know we were so lovely so tender and filled with life. Why not take a photograph, today or all days when we still are radiant. Why not realize that our worldly anchor of change and age do not subtract the charm our new age.

Do not disappear, again  take another picture with me

We are still beautiful, tender, and filled with life.

In the coursing hours of the night
when all thoughts sieze their cloaking chatter
I find the wholeness of myself
lilting the words "thank you"

with a cadence so simple
it feels innate
like the rising of the sun over our cityscape

I accepted your invitation
and so I stretch my hand out to you
together, you through me
will dance in this world of form

I humbly without any doubt entrust
my hands to you and And when it is all done
I know you will gently set it down

I, too am a happy temporary
stem with hands and legs
close to the ground with petals reaching
towards the sun