"cordova" poems
Cordova, far and lonely.
Black pony, full moon,
And olives in my pocket:
Although I know the roads,
I'll never reach Cordova.
For the plain, for the wind,
Black pony, red moon,
And death is watching for me
Beside Cordova's towers.
Alas! the long, long highway,
Alas! my valient pony,
Alas, that death is waiting
Before I reach Cordova.
Cordova, far and lonely.
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Something forgotten for twenty years: though my fathers
and mothers came from Cordova and Vitepsk and Caernarvon,
and though I am a citizen of the United States and less a
stranger here than anywhere else, perhaps,
I am Essex-born:
Cranbrook Wash called me into its dark tunnel,
the little streams of Valentines heard my resolves,
Roding held my head above water when I thought it was
drowning me; in Hainault only a haze of thin trees
stood between the red doubledecker buses and the boar-hunt,
the spirit of merciful Phillipa glimmered there.
Pergo Park knew me, and Clavering, and Havering-atte-Bower,
Stanford Rivers lost me in osier beds, Stapleford Abbots
sent me safe home on the dark road after Simeon-quiet evensong,
Wanstead drew me over and over into its basic poetry,
in its serpentine lake I saw bass-viols among the golden dead leaves,
through its trees the ghost of a great house. In
Ilford High Road I saw the multitudes passing pale under the
light of flaring sundown, seven kings
in somber starry robes gathered at Seven Kings
the place of law
where my birth and marriage are recorded
and the death of my father. Woodford Wells
where an old house was called The Naked Beauty (a white
statue forlorn in its garden)
saw the meeting and parting of two sisters,
(forgotten? and further away
the hill before Thaxted? where peace befell us? not once
but many times?).
All the Ivans dreaming of their villages
all the Marias dreaming of their walled cities,
picking up fragments of New World slowly,
not knowing how to put them together nor how to join
image with image, now I know how it was with you, an old map
made long before I was born shows ancient
rights of way where I walked when I was ten burning with desire
for the world's great splendors, a child who traced voyages
indelibly all over the atlas
, who now in a far country
remembers the first river, the first
field, bricks and lumber dumped in it ready for building,
that new smell, and remembers
the walls of the garden, the first light.
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Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle hadn't seen her mother since she was one,
She came to the U.S to see her mother, she was hospitalized not long after she arrived. Her mother requested for her to be released, the government denied her request.
Darlyn died in U.S government custody on September 29th 2018 age 10.
Jakelin Amei Rosemary Caal Maquin liked to climb trees. She jumped when her father told her that she could come to the U.S with him.
She thought she might get her first toy; she'd only just got her first pair of shoes.
Jakelin died in U.S government custody on December 8th 2018 age 7.
Felipe Gomez Alonzo was excited to come to the U.S. he thought he might get a bicycle, his parents let him make the trip after he got upset that his dad would leave without him.
Felipe died in U.S government custody on Christmas Eve 2018 age 8.
Juan de Leon Gutierrez was a shy, good student. When he had to miss school to help his dad harvest coffee, he'd always run to catch his teacher so he could explain his absence.
Juan died in U.S government custody on April 30th 2019 age 16.
Wilmer Josue Ramirez Vasquez's mother brought him to the U.S to receive medical treatment for a condition which left him unable to walk.
Wilmer died in U.S government custody on May 14th 2019 age 2.
Carlos Gregario Hernandez Vasquez loved playing the piano and bass, his family called him Goyito. He had eight brothers and sisters. One of them, Edgar, had special needs. Carlos came to the U.S to help support Edgar.
Carlo died in U.S government custody on May 30th 2019 age 16.
These are only some of the documented deaths,
In 25 years,
It's estimated that over 10,000 people have lost their lives at the U.S-Mexico border.
Aug 2, 2020
Aug 2, 2020 at 3:03 PM UTC
See me.
Really see me.
As I see you.
I've heard of you woman,
I knew your eyes were oceans
and your heart was a sacrifice
long before I came burning out of the desert.
I know that you were beaten
and I know you had your soul ripped out
by the ones who ought to have cherished you.
But I....I am not those men.
I was not sent here to take
but to give.
I long for the lost gardens of Cordova,
for the glory that was love and light
along the banks of the Guadilqivir
that river still flowing through my heart.
Yes, by all means test my resolve,
I have witnessed too much horror
to let one more heart be wasted.
I want to love you,
I want to take your suffering heart
and pour all the love God has given me
into your many wounds.
But it isn't in my power to do that,
It isn't given to me to rewrite your
book of tears and sacrifice.
I have been sent here,
journeying so long and so far
that I had nearly forgotten what
a home felt like until I woke
with you in my arms.
You kissed me,
and I heard the music again.
You touched my soul,
and the rains came at last.
You open my heart,
and I remember.
Jul 1, 2017
Jul 1, 2017 at 5:31 AM UTC
A sparkling afternoon
with a veteran of the slave ships.
Our careless liberty.
My hands on her hips.
Adrift on the water
and ending too soon.
Last night we walked the salmon run,
and spoke with our eyes.
Her honeyed tounge
Numbing my deceit.
Like a Colombian curse.
With her in the tower.
Laid bare to addiction.
In the hot moisture of our fusion.
Dew drops from her salty skin,
indulging each exquisite sin,
unharnessed.
Bound for daybreak.
Once I might have had the nerve
to sabotage the Polar Star.
With a road flare in the engine room
or an auger bit below.
But time has torn the spine from me.
And groomed me for humanity.
I've bent my knee to smoke and fear
And now I know the lash.
When winter comes I'll hit Cordova
and find out where she keeps her dogs.
So that I might lay beside them,
with my gentle hands upon them,
and howl for her return.
Feb 17, 2017
Feb 17, 2017 at 4:20 PM UTC