Richard Vargas, 13 angels rising

Of course I don't think there is or should be any Spanish language requirement for US Hispanic writers: I do think everyone should know another language and can't imagine a life reading poetry in just one language. My personal first choice, settled on long before moving to New Mexico, would be Spanish, also the language in which I discovered poetry. Taking Spanish poetry straight up without intermediaries, no water, no rocks, has been one of the great pleasures of my reading life.


On the other hand, the kinship here to Richard's "13 Angels" would be to that other poet of the city's poems, Baudelaire's "Le cygne" (Andromaque, je pense à vous) and "Les petites vieilles." Best though, for me as reader, is wandering through the connections, from revisiting Tableaux Parisiens to discovering Malena Mörling, Astoria and "If there is another world" (which, in turn. echoes Baudelaire's "La chambre double"), leading me back to Whitman walking the streets of Brooklyn and Lorca, "Poeta en Nueva York." 


This flânerie of reading and link following: encounter a poet, browse poetry pages, expand citylit repertoire and recognize Richard Vargas as a poet of the city. There is never just one poem but interconnected webs of them...
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from The Ditch Rider's July 24 Sunday poem in the Duke City Fix

No one comments more on news of the day than Albuquerque poet Richard Vargas. He is always on duty. And the recent headlines about prostitution have not gone unnoticed. Vargas recently won the 2011 Hispanic Writers Award at the Taos Summer Writers' Conference. He also edits and publishes The Mas Tequila Review

13 angels rising (after Malena Morling’s If There is Another World)

“Starting early in February investigators recovered 13 sets of skeletal remains from a once-remote section of mesa now being developed as a residential subdivision. Four have been identified… They are among a list of 16 women reported missing between 2001 and 2006.” krqe.com, 3/27/09

“According to APD, Garcia is… one of seven site moderators known as the “Hunt Club.” Moderators are in charge of bringing in new clients and prostitutes…” The Daily Lobo, 6/27/11

they say good is greater than evil

and if it is then the dead

shall rise and walk gain

right out of their Westside graves

past the tracts of generic

cardboard neighborhoods

past the cars cruising Central Ave

driven by men with bloodshot eyes

and Budweiser breath who wave

dollar bills in the air

like honey coated flypaper

and if so inclined the dead

will reinvent their renewed lives

so that closed fists open up

become soft as pillows where

dreams of violence fade away

the way a bruise heals when

kissed by a seraph’s lips

families, babies, and friends rejoice

embrace their return from

the eternal night

the cruel night

especially now as

the sun’s light

shines down and

warms the sidewalk

beneath their feet

especially now as butterfly wings

with a gossamer sheen sprout

from the satin skin stretched

over once-battered

shoulder blades

healed and whole

especially now as they

show us how to fly

and rise above the din

the nature of our sin

not a moment too soon

to come back and save

us from ourselves

inclined to walk among

the demons we all have

within and show us

how like a pebble

dropped in water

calm and still

our inhumanity

ripples outward

touching one

and all

-- Richard Vargas

Poetry submissions are welcome. Email theditchrider@gmail.com