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Jaime Chavez is a native New Mexican Poet, community organizer, filmmaker, who resides in the Manzano Mountains, east of Albuquerque.  He is completing a collection of poems for publication, (2017) entitled 1 Cosmic Cycle.

 

He is published in a number of New Mexico Anthologies and has served as a Poeta del Pueblo in his community historically, to preserve NM’s culture and way of life. 

 

Every year he organizes the Day of the Dead celebration in local theatres with cutting edge poets, musicians, and artists. He just wrote and directed a film entitled Las Acequias, Lifeblood of NM a 7 Caves, Windows of Aztlan Production.

Selected Poems for ALEF 2016

Tonalamatl/Timekeepers

Oh Netzahuacoyotl
Timekeepers
Of the universal
Gathering at Hopi,
On the mesas,
In the corn fields,
In the beans and squash,
Of the cracked earth,
Near the fire and handprint
Of Massau.
Over there, shaman
From Anahuac
Y Mayapan speak
Of Kukulcan/Ketzalcoatls journey,
Through the Chilam Balam
Maya, Otomi, Mexica,
Quechua, Pueblo sol,
All red nations,
Sun dancers,
Of the eagle & the condor
Prophesies
& Hopi petroglyph
Corn markings.
Vision quest of my people
Under 6th sun dreams
Oh Tonatiu....
Spirit runners
Search out peace & dignity
Throughout the continent
In the sage, rocks, holy spring,
Cloud filled memories
Of primal existence,
Looking for a message,
A sign
Of transformation.
To all my relations,
The plants, the animals,
The two legged
Here in the Inipi/Temascal
Of life, under these skins
In Atlixco,
Touching Mother Earth,
La Madre Tierra/Tonantzin
& one another,
As an eagle fan
Medicine man
Blesses a newborn child
With fire and water
As he cries out for all humanity.

Today, you gathered willows
Asking permission from
The Great Spirit/ Dador de la Vida,
The creator, to bless the red road
Of our ancestors and of our being
To ask for forgiveness for our
Human frailties,
Of life out of balance,
Koyaanisqatsi,

Here next to the altar
Of our dreams, eagle staff
Warriors, sacred tobacco
Gather in corn
Gestation, cosmic duality
Hummingbird on the left
Tezcatlipoca.

Hombre/mujer/man-woman
Sharing sage & cedar
With the sinew drum song
Fire
& Breath
Of our ancestors
Looking back at us
Through the wheel of life,
At the crossroads
Of time, in the here
And now of newly
Proposed coal
& uranium mines!

Exterminio/genocide
Spiritual ecology
Bumps in western time
War mongers
Who will turn
On you
For a dime.

Upside down
Profit margins
For blood,
One more drop
Of ecocide, national sacrifice
In the Colorado plateau,
El eje, four corners
Of my heart, mi corazon.

A sign of the times
Abuelo,
Oh grandfather.....

A sliver of red moon
And Venus,
Appears in the land
& over the Patomac
A hummingbird,
Star being sings
To the creation:

Soy Guerrero carnal,
Carnala of my living flesh
En la lucha celestial
From this place of emergence,
An ant hill over there
7 cuevas de Xicomostoc
From here to the other side.....
Vida y muerte
Kuautli
Itzpapalotl
Tonalteotl.
Cuenta sagrada
En la casa Kalli
Olin, en movimiento;

Everything is moving,
Ze Kalli, year 1
Tlalok, rain spirits
Here present
In this song.

Miktlantekutli
Flor y canto/Xochitlketzalli
En, Aztlan,
Lugar de las garzas,
Place of herons,
Atlixco, Atl
Lugar sobre l'agua,
Place on the water.

Ama, si me acuerdo
Sharing Zempoalzuchitl
Marigolds
On the road
Con copal/trementina
On a smoking mirror
Miklantekutli,
In this place of the dead.

Ama,
Here we walk
On the pilgrimage path
Ilhuicamina
For Mother Earth & the seeds
Of all creation.

Ometeotl
El es Dios,
To all red nations.

Tlazocamati.....

Lightening


Call of the flower people
Is planted in my genes—
Drops of water
From a cistern of light.

The evolutionary scale tips
Toward my mother,
Whose memory lies
In seven caves to the north.

A cosmogony & constellation
Of thoughts constantly
Incubating dreams of lightening-rain:
Falling. .
 

 

 

Relampago

La llamada
de la gente de la flor
Esta sembrado
En mis genes—
Gotas de agua
De una cisterna de luz.

La escala evolucionaria
Apunta hacia mi madre
Cuya memoria descanza
En las siete cuevas del norte.

Una cosmogonia y constelacion
De pensares incubando
Suenos de relampagos—
L’agua cayendo...

Trudell


The winter snow
& ice are chilling,
& your memory
Stirs the people;
Wounded Knee,
Alcatraz, motioning
An alignment
Of stars and prayer
Here on Turtle Island.
It’s been a long time,
& the war drums
Are still sounding
The call to form
The broader cause
Of humanity, calling out
From under the debris
Of a decaying civilization
Genocidal in nature,
Corporate war machine.
Of rage and inequity
In these streets from
The Mohawk nation
To Gallup, NM REZ
Fodder unfolding
In the uranium
& coal mines

Of global trade without
Respect for this way of life.

Santee Sioux, your father,
Mexicana your mother, Zapatista
Struggle, new world vision
Of the people united in one voice
With the songbirds looking on
Chanting: “Better to live on your feet
Than to die on your knees.”
Oh brother, poet warrior
Who stands for Mother Earth
In this great time of change,
According to our ancestors, spirit
Journey from Mitla, the place
Of the dead, timekeepers
Of the flower world,
Of my Yaqui mother,
Abuela, sing praise to the creation
To the oneness of humanity,
& all living things.
This we ask from you creator,
To gently free the spirit,
To soar, eagle like, above
The fire, above the water,
In the wind, & through the land.
Mitakue Oyasin-to all my relations.

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