Selected Poems

  
                      

                       remembrance (smiles/hurts sweetly)
                       October 8, 1972

                Old Man

   old man
   with brown skin
   talking of past
           when being shephard
           in utah, nevada, colorado and new mexico 
   was life lived freely;

   old man,
       grandfather,
   wise with time
   running rivulets on face, 
   deep, rich furrows,
         each one a legacy, 
   deep, rich memories 
   of life . . .
                 "you are indio,
                      among other things," 
                 he would tell me
                      during nights spent
                 so long ago
                      amidst familial gatherings 
                 in albuquerque . . .

   old man, loved and respected, 
   he would speak sometimes 
   of pueblos,
              san juan, santa clara, 
              and even santo domingo, 
   and his family, he would say, 
   came from there:
              some of our blood was here, 
              he would say,
              before the coming of coronado,
   other of our blood
              came with los españoles
   and the mixture
   was rich,
              though often painful . . .

   old man,
   who knew earth
       by its awesome aromas 
   and who felt 
   the heated sweetness
       of chile verde 
   by his supple touch,
   gone into dust is your body
       with its stoic look and resolution, 
   but your reality, old man, lives on 
   in a mindsoul touched by you . . .

   Old Man . . .