A Framed Copy of an Article in the Community Section of the Houston Chronicle, October 2006
What began as the “Reading Series” at Montgomery College in 1993 evolved to become the “Writers In Performance” series conducted by the Montgomery County Literary Arts Council (MCLAC). Over the years, many local poets, as well as national poets, have read their poetry at Montgomery College. Since moving to Tucson 12 years ago, I haven’t had too many opportunities to attend the series, which continues under the leadership of Cliff Hudder and Dave Parsons.
Wait; the great horned owls Calling from the wood’s edge; listen. There: the dark male, low And booming, tremoring the whole valley. There: the female, resolving, answering High and clear, restoring silence. The chilly woods draw in Their breath, slow, waiting, and now both Sound out together, close to harmony.
These are the year’s worst nights. Ice glazed on the top boughs, Old snow deep on the ground, Snow in the red-tailed hawks’ Nests they take for their own. Nothing crosses the crusted ground. No squirrels, no rabbits, the mice gone, No crow has young yet they can steal. These nights the iron air clangs Like the gates of a cell block, blank And black as the inside of your chest.
Now, the great owls take The air, the male’s calls take Depth on and resonance, they take A rough nest, take their mate And, opening out long wings, take Flight, unguided and apart, to caliper The blind synapse their voices cross Over the dead white fields, The dead black woods, where they take Soundings on nothing fast, take Soundings on each other, each alone.
— W.D. Snodgrass
Kenne and W.D. Snodgrass (1999) — Montgomery College Writers In Performance Series
It was a little over six years ago that I first met Carmen Tafolla. She was the March 2007, guest reader at Montgomery College’s (now Lone Star College – Montgomery) “Writer’s In Performance” series. I was impressed!
Carmen, a native of the West-Side barrios of San Antonio, Texas is an excellent writer, but first and foremost a storyteller. Often her readings include taking on the persona of the person in the poem, as shown in two of the photos in the above collage (older women and a child). Carmen is very inspirational — she touches your heart.
As a storyteller, Carmen follows the instruction from a historian, which she writes about in the poem, “The Storykeeper:”
Ask the whispers, she whispers, breathed out in unguarded moments, when the soul is too worn down to hurt more, in the numbness of the night, when the father wrestles with the unwritten history, pleading to save it, speak it, bury it, staring at the pluma across the room, avoiding the paper.
from the poem “The Storykeeper” in the book of poems, Sonnets and Salsa
Even though I like to think I’m relatively up to date with the southwest literary world, I was surprised to learn yesterday that last March 2012, San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro appointed Carmen Tafolla as the inaugural poet laureate — an honor well deserved.
The University of Arizona houses one of the best-known centers of poetry, “Poetry Center,” in the country; yet after doing a site search, I learned that Carmen Tafolla has never read there, which I difficult hard to believe — wondering out loud (in print), WHY! The Poetry Center should invite this unique Southwestern voice to read in Tucson.
We do know that many in Tucson are aware of Carmen Tafolla, since one of her books, “Curandera” was banned Tucson Unified School District’s unprecedented censorship and massive removal of Latino and Mexican American literature and texts from its classroom. As a result, and in honor of the book’s 30th anniversary, Wings Press reissued a special “Banned in Arizona!” edition, of “Curandera.”
kenne
(The title of this posting, “HealthCare” — ” But, No One Cares” is a line from Carmen Tafolla’s poem, “HealthCare” the sign says.)
Becoming is Superior to Being 