Last week, I got to participate in an open mic at The Gallery at Ten Oaks in McMinnville. When I got up there, I made a note that it was my open mic in our new city, and that I always made it a point to find the open mics wherever we moved. Open mics are we you get to see the stories and the imagination of a city.
During my slot, I offered up this week’s poem by Francisco X. Alarcón in both English and Spanish. It was important to me to let the words hang in the air in both languages. I mentioned that between hurricanes in the gulf, forest fires here in the west, and the consequences of rescinding DACA, survival has been a constant in my conversations with family and friends.
I would have loved to hear what Alarcón would say about our times now. His death almost two years ago now keeps being fresh on my mind as I find myself compelled to engage with the personal and political in my poems for new reasons. Only through such engagement can we reach new understandings. I say “new,” but the new always takes us back to the old, or, as in the poem below, the present. Alarcón’s poem asserts presence as a subversive act; being present with this poem allows me to be present within myself. Such is the gift Alarcón possessed and left for us in his work.
Natural Criminal – Francisco X. Alarcón
translated by Francisco Aragón
I am
a nomad
in a country
of settlers
a drop
of oil
in a glass
of water
a cactus
flowering
where one
can’t and
shouldn’t
flourish
I am
history’s
fresh and
living wound
my crime
has been being
what I’ve been
all my life
*
Naturaleza criminal – Fransico X. Alarcón
soy
un nómada
en un país
de sedentarios
una gota
de aceite
en un vaso
de agua
un nopal
que florece
en donde
no se puede
ni se debe
florecer
soy
una herida
todavía viva
de la historia
mi crimen
ha sido ser
lo que he sido
toda mi vida
from From the Other Side of the Night/del otro lado de la noche: New and Selected Poems
*
Happy naturalezando!
José
The death of Francisco X. Alarcón earlier this month has been on my mind as I wrap up my 3rd year reading and work through exams this week. Reviewing his book, 
