La luz, puerta de toda la poesía.

Light: door to all poetry.

Ningún artista puede llenar
de color ese muro blanco
como el maestro Sol
a las tres de la tarde

No artist can cover
that white wall with color
at three in the afternoon
like Maestro Sun

— first stanza from the poem
Momenta solares (Solar moments)
by Homeris Arijdis

I recently came across this book, Solar Poems, a collection of poetry by Homero Aridjis. I bought it, not really knowing anything about this poet.

The "Art Is" program mission statement reads that "Art Is... will bring works of art (music, dance, theater and visual art, with a focus on multicultural work, to all Rooftop students and develop partnerships between teachers, teaching artists, arts organizations and art parents to develop integrated, interdisciplinary curriculum that will support learning for all students.

There is so much to be learned when we seek out that which we do not already know.

Arijdis is the author of 36 books of poetry, fiction, drama, and children’s stories, many translated into a dozen languages. Aridjis has won the Xavier Villaurrutia Prize, Diana-Novedades Prize, Grinzane-Cavour Prize, Prix Roger Caillois, Smederevo Golden Key, Erendira State Prize for the Arts, two Guggenheim Fellowships, the UNEP Global 500 Award, Orion Society’s John Hay Award, NRDC’s Force for Nature Award, and Mikhail Gorbachev and Global Green’s International Environmental Leadership Award.

In 1977, Homeris Aridis was elected president of International PEN, an organization founded in Europe in 1921 to promote literature and defend freedom of expression. A collection of his poetry, "Ojos de otro mirar (Eyes to see otherwise)," can be downloaded in both Spanish and English from the International PEN Collection of Poetry, Fiction and Essay website, which offers free access to the works of world authors. http://www.diversity.org.mk/Sodrzini.asp?idEKniga=99&dlcount=1

A una mariposa monarca

Tu que vas por el dia
como un tigre alado
quemándote en tu vuelo
dime què vida sobrenatural
está pintada en tus alas
para que despuès de esta vida
pueda verte en mi noche


To a Monarch Butterfly

You who go through the day
like a winged tiger
burning as you fly
tell me what supernatural life
is painted on your wings
so that after this life
I may see you in my night

Aridjis was born in Contepec, Michoacán, Mexico, on April 6, 1940, to a Greek father and Mexican mother; he was the youngest of five brothers. As a child, Aridjis would often walk up a hillside near his home to watch the migrating monarch butterflies. As he grew older logging thinned the forest. This and other events in his life caused him to co-found the Grupo de los Cien, the Group of 100, an association of one hundred artists and intellectuals that became heavily involved in trying to draw attention to and solve environmental problems in Mexico.

His battles to protect the marine turtle, the gray whale and the Monarch butterfly have won him international recognition as a dedicated environmentalist. Aridis says "Ecology is poetry. Nature and poetry are closely linked. I defend water, soil, trees, animal life by making them the central issues of my poems."

I also discovered that Solar Poems was published by San Francisco's venerable literary institution, City Lights. On their website, you can find a pdf of the book's table of contents and "Poema al Sol (Poem to the Sun)," the opening poem from the new book.

http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100569170

Here is a letter from City Lights announcing the publication of Solar Poems:

With the recent announcement that Mexico will dismantle its delegation to UNESCO--the United Nations branch dedicated to preserving cultural heritage and human rights--due to budget shortages, and daily reports of violence plaguing the country’s reputation, Homero Aridjis’s newest collection of poetry, Solar Poems, comes at a vital time.
An activist, poet, and Mexico’s former Ambassador to UNESCO, Aridjis explores political consciousness as well as the psychological unconscious in Solar Poems, transcending the boundary between life and death as he explores his own past and Mexico's cultural heritage.

“The closure of the offices of Mexico to UNESCO is a regrettable extent, a blow to the Mexican culture and the international leadership role that the country should play in Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa,” Aridjis told the Mexican newspaper Reforma. “This affects the country's image, especially at a time when there is a chronic spread of violence.”

During his diplomatic tenure, Aridjis and his team added three new sites to the UNESCO List of World Heritage Sites--including the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, which was critical to the survival of the species--and oversaw safeguarding the traditions of the Otomí-Chichimecas people of Tolimán and other indigenous populations. With the closing of Mexico’s UNESCO office, many similar projects will be cancelled. Despite the discontinuation of his post, Aridjis continues his legacy of activism with the publication of Solar Poems, the first English translation of a single volume of his poems. He sees the task of the poet “to tell this planet's stories--and to articulate an ecological cosmology that does not separate nature from humanity.”

Aridjis lamented Mexico's decision to close the UNESCO's office saying, "Our children are in dire need of self-esteem and of learning the true values of Mexico, its culture and natural treasures."

The more that I learn about this amazing man, the more I think that he would be a wonderful poet to introduce to the community.

La sonris infinita de la luz
es un verso que es un poema
que es un universo...

Light's infinite smile
is a verse that is a poem
that is a universe...