"Commitment Otra Vez" by Carmen Calatayud

Poem of the Week -   Carmen Calatayud                   Commitment Otra Vez       ...........for R.V.        Some generations ago, you were a Zapatista inside your great-grandmother's womb, black eye sockets of revolution, carrying roses with the pink blown out, dando gritos in earshot of the Americas. But now your doubt is strewn across the room like petals from dead maravillas, even in this space you rent where spiritual warriors pray for your country and you can finally sleep through the night. Listen, amigo de los desamparados, this is your time, again, beyond gut-level fear and black and white film: The explosions just keep coming, and you are chewing on history, and never let it be said that all you could do was cry.   -Carmen Calatayud  Used by permission. From In the Company of Spirits (Press 53, 2012)   Carmen Calatayud's first poetry collection, In the Company of Spirits, was published in October 2012 by Press 53. Her poetry has appeared in journals such as Beltway Poetry Quarterly, Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review, Cutthroat: A Journal of the Arts, Gargoyle, PALABRA: A Magazine of Chicano and Latino Literary Art, and the anthology DC Poets Against the War. She is a Larry Neal Poetry Award winner, a runner-up for the Walt Whitman Award and recipient of a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellowship. Born to a Spanish father and Irish mother in the U.S., Calatayud works and writes in Washington, DC.   Carmen will launch In the Company of Spirits as part of Split This Rock's Sunday Kind of Love Reading series this Sunday October 21, 5-7pm at Busboys and Poets (14th & V location). Details here. Reading with her is poet and local literary favorite, Fred Joiner. Hope to see you there!            Please feel free to forward Split This Rock Poem of theWeek widely. We just ask you to include all of theinformation in this email, including this request. Thanks! If you are interested in reading past poems of the week, feel free to visit the blog archive.     Split This Rock www.splitthisrock.org info@splitthisrock.org 202-787-5210

Poem of the Week Open Call   Split This Rock began the Poem of the Week program in October 2009 as a way of publicizing the poets who were to be featured in the 2010 festival. We have since continued the series by featuring the work of participants of our festivals. We are pleased to open the call up to any poet writing in the socially engaged vein -- festival participant or not.    Visit our blog for specifics and submission guidelines.  We look forward to reading your work! Support Split This Rock Please support Split This Rock, the national network of activist poets. Donations are fully tax-deductible.  Click here to donate. Or send a check payable to "Split This Rock" to: Split This Rock, c/o Institute for Policy Studies, 1112 16th Street NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20036. Many thanks! Contact info@splitthisrock.org for more details or to become a sponsor.