Monday's Poetry: "Our Blood" or "Sangre Nuestra"

by Pa Rock

Poetry Appreciator

I have written in this blog before regarding the works of the late and great Latin American author, Roberto Bolano.    One of Bolano's two masterworks, 2666, had, as its primary focus, the femicides in and around Ciudad Juarez in which over a thousand women have been murdered, while often suffering sexual assault, since 1993, and those murders continue to this day.  In addition to the known murders, many other young women have suffered rape and sexual violence or simply disappeared.

One of the most strident voices in the struggle to draw public attention to the murders of these women was the poet, Susana Chavez.  Chavez was recognized as coining the phrase "Ni una muerta mas," or "Not one more dead" in response to the killings and other violence directed toward women in that area of Mexico which lies just over the U.S. border from El Paso, Texas.

Susana Chavez herself fell victim to mortal violence on January 6th, 2011, when she was found strangled to death with her left hand cut off.    The poet is dead, but her words and her rage live on - in many languages.

OUR BLOOD

by Susana Chavez

Blood of my own,
blood of sunrise,
blood of a broken moon,
blood of silence,
of dead rock,
of a woman in bed
jumping into nothingness,
Open to the madness.
Blood clear and definite,
fertile seed,
Blood the unbelievable journey,
Blood as its own liberation,
Blood, river of my songs,
Sea of my abyss.
Blood, painful moment of my birth,
Nourished by my last appearance.

SANGRE NUESTRA

by Susana Chavez

Sangre mía,
de alba,
de luna partida,
del silencio.
de roca muerta,
de mujer en cama,
saltando al vacío,
Abierta a la locura.
Sangre clara y definida,
fértil y semilla,
Sangre incomprensible gira,
Sangre liberación de sí misma,
Sangre río de mis cantos,
Mar de mis abismos.
Sangre instante donde nazco adolorida,
Nutrida de mi última presencia.