Alurista       Alurista

Alurista is a Chicano poet of the 1960s and 1970s, who composed bilingual poetry, mixing Spanish and English in order to express "the dual consciousness of the Latino subject in the United States".

His major contribution to Modernist poetry consists in the elevation of the Chicano poet to a new status, comparable to the ancient Mayan Nahuatl role of the "tlamatini".

In the ancient Mesoamerican culture, this was a "combination of teacher, psychologist, moralist, cosmologist, metaphysician, humanist, historian, and genealogist" and as such the tlamatini was "responsible for composing, painting, knowing, and teaching the songs and poems in which they preserved their scientific knowledge."

The Mayans produced codices, or tables of pictographic representation of historical events and/or ceremonious occasions. These were often correlated to their calendar cycles and embedded with numeric patterns.

Just as in the case of Egyptian hieroglyphics, modern scholars do not fully understand all the nuances of the meaning of these texts (Para. 31-33).

do u dare

long lost treasure smile with your eyes as i purse my lips

in poverty, material u know heart remains whole, spirit

loving one earth despite the news 'bout mars weep the

twang u warp, twelve string may b thee, steel, cold, lava

reaps new land hope, faith in us, cherish the will to b

ourselves, selfishly we walk meadows, do not go beyond

pride, shine sunflower, live, struggle, cut cane, plant

orchids, count the petals off thee, rose, amatista perhaps

the russian stones, alexandrines 'n' siberian dunes re-

main what u, i b doing, got no dough, cookies? a la . . .

cookie?! . . . pos si in silence peace prevails pablo

plucking buganvillas, cats stalking, birds singing yet i

think 'bout u cause the grapes served 'n' chaliced, no

mind the nukes, the budget cuts, the clumsiness, the

ignorance, the barking dogs, pray, count blessings, gold

matters not, sliver cast off thy eye, stone u b pure, i

profess clarity, midnight courage, sanddollar doves rise

within, an eagle swooping down to capture rat crawl,

one day babylon will recall the tongue that bow spoke in

obsidian arrowheads capturing cactus flower beds at

dawn, peyote mist, dreams past nightmarish military

black gold plots locking earth clouds, rainless quaking,

rattling huracanes, fast winds wallowing, shells up-

turning melodies, missions, yes justice for all truly for

some, we b not included, could have played the part, yet

not my play, coolness, frankness, fondness, catness, will-

fullness, elliotness and hooverness, damness, touchi-

ness, jaguarness, treeness, beeness, antness, smokeless-

ness, lifelessness, firelessness, sexlessness, bodylessness,

mindlessness, brewlessness, rootlessness, a new sun

sparkles us again warm bright drumming sunflower un-

wind windlight earthflow b treasure tinkling bells sling-

shooting platanares mirasol rushing candidates abound

yet children have no shoes, beans are hard to find, rice

and tortillas lack comales whatfor whoever whosoul

what whip remain watersnake, milpas rise still and

corncobs spit golden hairs off green husks, the blades of

cane slice the skin off our hands we sweeten coffee

canela chocolate boxes soaping mothersingle as quail

bush ideology black gold requires a new greed and a new

prostitute manifesto for transnationals 'guised as open

trade dna dea doa usa crash'bol culon unborn, nonato

hud iud dui abc cia drumming sunflower unwind wind-

light earthflow bark lava magma showtime magnitude

amplitude thermometering blood b tracing tracy dicks,

search seek, swallow thorns forget the roses, flutes ink

no more songs, whales frolic still past this shore,

ahuacatli flower bloom bone b brotherhood bastion bee

sisterhood survives sweeps down winds springwater-

shot up the meadowed oaks weeping willows eucalyptus

flutter with mariposa reinas de su espacio, otters clam-

ming pearls and sweating vinegar jobs are hard to find,

asphalt eats rubber off walking shoes, leather skin bone

becomes before beckoning surrender sun simmers soft-

ly sinking across eye flutters two palm trees smiling,

lincoln rose laughing b a foster parent parent not your

own the other is swanflower sunflower swimflower to

the shore sharks await thy drum looking still for u reina

mora, shoe thyself clothe thyself house thyself love

thyself i will shall shell clam off the rock lobster boil

within salted pot lime luster leak no lead we b not

carving death, being born bean b bodacious carry pearls vsilver onix, crap on bull there b no more alexandrines

left for anyone bearing hemlock

. . . poets pee off suicide as

meaningless . . . suicide? . . . no dice

play chicken some other cliff

keep heart whole

love

b

one

b

one

we

b

panal

bear honey

cast your hemlock to the sea

u know life is a beach and then u have

to swim to shore wave

this forehead is now yours

the satchel off my left arm that thought b mine

as well, be filled

i know nothing off a lamp

unless my touch bears candles u stand under rain

wicks suck oil to flame

fire prevails centered

lest all our planets b gone wind carries dew

there b more than one star

silvermoon prevails

those of us who cherish sun surrenders, u b i

trim thy venus mound

'tis the hunted

not the panther

u b narrow

i the arrow?

'tis the hunter

not the hare

r u pubic?

do u dare?

(From http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/alurista.html)
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