One More Poem

CLOUDS

How we know them without seeing:

I am looking down, fingers tight at the weed root,
pulling. The sting of the June sun migrates,
shoulder to shoulder and then, as if laying down
their white palms, a chill starts, each bead of sweat
refrigerates, and I tilt nearly to earth. And I dream

of that summer, of blonde best friend Elizabeth
from Massachusetts who stood at the window
of our little Santa Fe rental spouting ohs, crooning
their multitudinous shapes: battleship, behemoth,
woman giving birth, chess pieces marching across
the western sky. Or the shadow that crawls across

the book I read for hours then sleep to, then wake
in fear, knowing a spider is crawling over my hand
but no, just the shadow of a cloud I don’t have to
turn to, relieved. Or I am standing in the kitchen

and evening descends in the middle of the day
like a whale-bird, an unexpected lunar eclipse
till it moves on and the sun cocks its head
toward the world again. And I don’t have to see,

and it is enough to watch them in the mind--fat,
white, mansion-like, cut-out against the wide
New Mexico blue, tumbling over the Sangres

in the summer afternoons, in droves, like they have
for millions of years and will, sometimes with rain,
sometimes swift, sometimes just floating pure
pleasure into the sightless hearts of children.

Valerie Martinez
copyright 2009

Another Santa Fe Poem

EASTER PILGRIMS
for Andrea Martínez
1959-2008

The old one, buttoned up, wind hard at his back.
The old one, pushed forward on his staff.

I wake up

from some fog, bent sun,
hypnotic drone of the car engine

to the Easter pilgrims, everywhere, on the shoulder.
Still a week out, on foot, a hundred miles
from the Santuario de Chimayo.

Because you are gone, my sister, the pilgrimage—

this one, each spring,
the Haj, even the pagan
cure-for-cancer pledge run

unlocks it.

What is my church, Old Man with a staff?
How do you know yours? Believe?

Because I cannot, six months after your death,
feel you near me, I want to join the severest ones,
on their bloody knees.

Theirs is a certainty, yes, and I have gone the other way.

The rain starts, here, on the interstate.
The man, now far behind, is pelted with raindrops,

triangular,
arrow-like,
honed by wind.

He walks on.

I do not know where you are, for sure, though I am given
certain definite options, by those who do:

heaven
reincarnation
absolutely nothing.

I have chosen, instead, the hush and no
of unknowingness
and the images I give it—

black hole, mountain fog,
windstorm, river mud.

Things we can’t see through.

Your way, Old Man, sings of some old
certainty, deep in the belly.
I remember it, recognize it again
from our childhood days, Sweet Sister.

It is sharp, sacrificial, the vertiginous certitude
of these teenagers, old couples, men
with their spare boots slung over their backs.

They are dizzying, yes. Their beauty,
this clarity--it slays me.


Valerie Martinez
copyright 2009

National Latino/a Writers Conference

Hello All--

The days and weeks fly by. Thursday through Saturday of last week I was lucky enough to be on the faculty of the National Latino Writers Conference in Albuquerque. I led workshops on "The Art of Identity: Writing the Self" and "Writing the Unpredictable Poem" as well as worked with several writers in individual conferences. This is a small, intimate conference which allowed for much individual time with participants, one of the weekend's best features. They limit participants to 50, keeping the conference small and intensive. Thanks to everyone at the NHCC--organizers and staff--for a really good three days.

Coming up, the Taos Summer Writers Conference in July. This is another smaller, intimate conference. It is wonderfully friendly, rigorous while being very friendly, with a terrific "bookstore." If you've got time to travel in July, check it out online.

Hoping to Publish Your Manuscript of Poetry?

If you have a manuscript of poetry you are hoping to publish, please join me for a poetry master class at the Taos Summer Writers Conference in July. For more information, go to: http://www.unm.edu/~taosconf/

Here's a description of the week-long workshop:

Poetry – Valerie Martínez . This weeklong master class is an intensive workshop for advanced poets with a book-length manuscript. During the week, we’ll undertake the exciting and challenging process of readying the manuscript for possible publication. To do this, the class (limited to six poets) will focus on holistic issues: the overall concerns of the collections, the general quality of the work, the arrangement and progression of poems, beginnings and endings, etc. As a group, we’ll also address the strongest and weakest poems in the collection, providing guidance for major and minor changes. And, if necessary, we’ll undertake creative exercises that allow each poet to see her/his manuscript with a fresh perspective. The class will include workshop sessions and individual conferences. Manuscripts must be no more than 60 pages, single-spaced. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring five additional poems that can serve as additions or replacements. Hard copies of manuscripts must be mailed to Valerie and other participants ahead of time, postmarked on or before June 12, 2009.

Recent Readings, Events, and Appearances

I've been keeping a fairly busy schedule, so far, this late winter/early spring, especially in support of high school poets and poetry programs, in celebration of Women & Creativity Month, and promoting further dialogue about important movements in contemporary American poetry.

• 4/18/09 : Arts Alliance Bravos Award Dinner in support of the NHCC’s Voces Youth Program, serving New Mexico high school students, 6 p.m., Albuquerque.
• 4/16/09: Poetry Jam 2009, celebrating New Mexico CultureNet's Poets in the Schools (PITS) program
• 4/4/09: Spoken Word National High School Qualifying Competition (Judge). Santa Fe Indian School. 7 p.m.
• 3/27/09: Ekphrastic Performance (with Maureen Seaton, Valerie Martinez, and Jasmine Cuffee) in response to sheri crider’s installation: Capitalism: Fueled by Envy and Greed. SCA Contemporary Art, Albuquerque, 7 p.m. Women & Creativity Month, 2009.
• 3/22/09: Meeting of the Lines and Circles Project Families. 2 p.m. O’Shaughnessy Performing Space, College of Santa Fe
• 3/15/09: SALVE: Women on War and Warriorship—Spoken Word & Music performance based on interviews with women war veterans, in celebration of Women and Creativity Month, 2009. Littleglobe. New Mexico Veterans War Memorial, Albuquerque, 2 p.m.
• 3/14/09: SALVE: Women on War and Warriorship—Spoken Word & Music performance based on interviews with women war veterans, in celebration of Women & Creativity Month, 2009. Littleglobe. O’Shaughnessy Performance Space, College of Santa Fe.
• 3/3/09: Dear Eve, Lilith, and Emily… Reading with Dana Levin, Valerie Martínez and Robin Romm in celebration of Women & Creativity Month. 12:30 p.m., College of Santa Fe.
• 2/14/09: Panel--Associated Writing Programs Annual Conference, Chicago: “Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections”'
• 2/14/09: Panel Moderator: Associated Writing Programs Annual Conference, Chicago: “Sibling Rivalries: Spoken & Written Word Poetry and the Literary Tug-of-War,” with Jon Davis, Danny Solis, Jill Battson, and Michelle Holland
• 2/8/09: Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest—New Mexico State High School Competition Finals, 2009 (judge), 1 p.m., St. Francis Auditorium

Please Join Us for Poetry Jam 2009

This Thursday, please join us a for celebration of youth poetry and New Mexico poetry sponsored by New Mexico CultureNet, which promotes poetry in the schools (PITS), one of the rare non-profit sponsored school poetry programs in New Mexico. Many young poets and New Mexico poets, music, and entertainment. It's great fun and a way to show support for poetry programs in our public schools.

Event: New Mexico CultureNet presents Poetry Jam ’09: "a celebration of poetry and culture"
What: Readings and Performances
Host: New Mexico Culturenet
Day/Time: Thursday, April 16, 2009 at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Lensic Performing Arts Center - Santa Fe
$5 for Teachers and Students, $10 for other adults

Quartocentenario Celebration of Santa Fe

The end of March 2009 marks the beginning of a two-year commemoration of 400 years of the city of Santa Fe, originally established by the Spanish as the "villa" of Santa Fe. Of course, as we now know, with the discovery of indigenous artifacts beneath the old Sweeney Center and in the renovation of the Palace of the Governors, Santa Fe was home to indigenous peoples before it was declared a villa by the Spanish. So, commemorations and anniversaries are complicated. How do we now celebrate "400 years"? As 400 years of Spanish and then U.S. occupancy/residency/occupation IN ADDITION to occupancy by native peoples? With my own Hispanic and native ancestry, I discover, in this discussion, the inadequacy of language to keep from overvaluing or undervaluing one or the other of "Santa Fe's" peoples. Tomorrow morning, I'll meetwith Stephen Lentz from the New Mexico Office of Archaelogical Studies to learn the latest about those indigenous artifacts, "under" the contemporary city of Santa Fe and will report back here. For now, I want to acknowledge our 400th celebration (the city has invited President Obama to quartocentenario event in September) while engaging us in a dialogue about the complicated history of our beautiful city. Nothing good is ever simple; Santa Fe and its history is rich and messy. Most things worth something are.