FREE Oct 11th In-Person PDX Literary Arts Poetry Reading and Discussion

 Hope to see you there!

https://literary-arts.org/event/timeless-feminist-wisdom-a-poetic-conversation-between-adela-zamudio-and-adrienne-rich/ 

Mind-melding with Adela Zamudio---Bolivia's most celebrated writer

Creative flow. Translating Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), Bolivia's most celebrated writer. Her birthday, October 11th, is a national holiday. I'm fortunate to be the first translator of much of her work into English. My translation of her poem "Poeta" was published in Stanford University's issue 20 of Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism & Translation. 

Fuente Fountain Books recently published my bilingual book Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose. I'm thrilled that the book right now is in the second round of judging for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation!

November 30th I gave a talk (in Spanish) where I analyzed Zamudio's allegorical story "Yesterday's Meeting." (It's possible that Zamudio's story inspired George Orwell's later similar work, Animal Farm.) The Seminario Internacional Perú XIX "Autoridad, ciudadanía y cuerpos: desplazamientos y fracturas en la modernidad" in Lima Peru will have video recordings of the conference available soon on https://www.facebook.com/RielPeruXIX/videos. It was a trip for me to get up at 5 am in Portland, Oregon to present my paper via Zoom at 6 am (9 am Lima time). I love how virtual conferences let us connect with interesting folks all around the world--folks who are passionate about the same sort of stuff we care about. I enjoyed sharing a synopsis of my Reed College Master of Arts in Liberal Studies thesis, Domination and Justice in the Allegorical Story "La reunión de ayer" by Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), Bolivia.

I'm honored that in early 2023, Sinister Wisdom: A Multicultural Lesbian Literary & Art Journal will be publishing my English translation of Adela Zamudio's love poem to her sister, "Yesterday Afternoon."

I feel like I've mind-melded with Adela Zamudio. It feels deep and powerful, tender and awe-inspiring. And fun. Adela Zamudio has a great sense of humor! I hope you enjoy reading Adela Zamudio as much as I (and the many people whose praise fills the opening pages of Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose) do.

*    *    *

La creatividad fluye. Estoy traduciendo Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), la escritora más célebre de Bolivia. Su cumpleaños, el 11 de octubre, es un feriado nacional. Tengo la suerte de ser la primera traductora de gran parte de su obra al inglés. Mi traducción de su poema "Poeta" se publicó en el número 20 de Mantis: A Journal of Poetry, Criticism & Translation de la Universidad de Stanford.

Fuente Fountain Books publicó recientemente mi libro bilingüe Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose. ¡Estoy encantada de que el libro ahora mismo esté en la segunda ronda de evaluación del Premio PEN de Poesía en Traducción!

El 30 de noviembre di una charla (en español) donde analicé el cuento alegórico de Zamudio "La reunión de ayer". (Es posible que la historia de Zamudio haya inspirado el trabajo similar posterior de George Orwell, Animal Farm). El Seminario Internacional Perú XIX "Autoridad, ciudadanía y cuerpos: desplazamientos y fracturas en la modernidad" en Lima Perú tendrá grabaciones de video de la conferencia disponibles pronto en https ://www.facebook.com/RielPeruXIX/videos. Fue dichoso levantarme a las 5 am en Portland, Oregón para presentar mi ponencia vía Zoom a las 6 am (9 am hora de Lima). Me encanta cómo las conferencias virtuales nos permiten conectarnos con personas interesantes de todo el mundo, personas apasionadas por el mismo tipo de cosas que nos importan. Disfruté compartiendo una sinopsis de mi tesis de maestría en estudios liberales de Reed College, Domination and Justice in the Allegorical Story "La reunión de ayer" by Adela Zamudio (1854-1928), Bolivia.

Me siento honrado de que a principios de 2023, Sinister Wisdom: A Multicultural Lesbian Literary & Art Journal publicará mi traducción al inglés del poema de amor de Adela Zamudio a su hermana, "Yesterday Afternoon".

Siento que me he fusionado mentalmente con Adela Zamudio. Se siente profundo y poderoso, tierno e inspirador. Y divertido. ¡Adela Zamudio tiene un gran sentido del humor! Espero que disfruten leyendo Adela Zamudio tanto como yo (y las muchas personas cuyos elogios llenan las primeras páginas del libro bilingüe Adela Zamudio: Selected Poetry & Prose).

Computerized Tension

Computers connect us and divide us. 
A spam email threatening to divide you from friends and family--blackmail lies. 
A email connecting us--poetry. 
Tension of connection and division. 
Tension. 
Tension that can send us 

over the edge.

About this Poem

This poem is part of my Solstice solar year poem cycle, where I write a poem a day from June 22, 2019 to June 21, 2020. The poem a day may get posted on a different day than it was written, or several poems might get posted on the same day. And if I choose to submit a poem to a literary journal, I delete it from this blog before doing so. That's my project. I hope it touches your soul and makes you think.

And maybe inspires you to write more poems of your own.

A poem a day--Day 1--Grey Whale Die Off

At this solstice time I vow to write a poem a day for a solar year and post them here as I can.
(Although, when I decide to submit certain poems to literary journals, I'll delete them first from this blog.) Today I begin with the first poem of the cycle.

Grey Whale Die Off

Mamakocha ocean vomited 

160 Grey Whale corpses 

onto West Coast beaches so far this year.

The federal government is running out of space to bury the decomposing behemoths.

Scientist claim to have no idea why they are dying.

One Port Townsend couple with beach-front property “adopts” a whale corpse. It’s educational to watch it decompose. (Are we watching the species decompose?) The whale’s starved belly holds only bits of plastic and lots of eel grass, neither of which is part of their normal arctic diet. Desperation food that does not nourish whales.

A whale expert postpones alarm. First, he questions, “Is there any relationship to climate change? Does this link to any factors that might affect other species as well?”

Questions that reveal cluelessness about our interconnection on this blue-green planet rolling through the universe whose super-novad stars constitute our bodies. Our whale bodies. Our human bodies. The sea womb of life on this planet, the seawater red in our veins.

Our star dust bodies course seawater blood, yet we forgot the name of our Mother. 

Some stardust-seawater bodies called “human” manipulate decomposed dinosaurs into plastic, pollution, burning belches from factory stacks, car, truck, train, ship exhaust.

Forgetting “All Our Relations” some stardust-seawater bodies mass-produce deforested chemical pumped cows’ farts heating the globe.

Global heating climate crisis in this cauldron of planetary soup that is cooking us all.

Will someone please turn off the stove?

In the Salish Sea Native Americans sing and drum to killer whale Orca cousins and their still-born babies, slipping them a ceremonial salmon, hoping to stave off whale extinction.

Extinction Rebellion dances and sings a street closed in front of City Hall in Portland, Oregon.

We the people declare a climate emergency now now now.

 About this poem 

Inspired by personal experience and the following news reports:

https://nypost.com/2019/06/21/the-west-coast-is-running-out-of-space-to-put-dead-whales/

https://www.npr.org/2019/06/19/733955563/got-space-for-a-dead-whale

https://nypost.com/2019/04/05/federal-officials-support-native-tribes-push-for-only-whale-hunt-in-us/

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/25/orca-starving-washington-feed-salmon-lummi-native-american

https://www.oregonlive.com/news/2019/06/climate-change-protest-blocks-street-in-downtown-portland.html

https://nypost.com/2019/04/05/federal-officials-support-native-tribes-push-for-only-whale-hunt-in-us/