ISRAEL FRANCISCO HAROS LOPEZ - POEMS

Israel Francisco Haros Lopez was born in East Los Angeles to immigrant parents of Mexican descent. Israel graduated from U.C. Berkeley and received a degree in English Literature and Chicano Studies followed by an M.F.A in Creative Writing. At formal and informal visual art spaces, Israel creates and collaborates in many interdisciplinary ways including poetry, performance, music, visual art, and video making and curriculum creation. His work addresses a multitude of historical and spiritual layered realities of border politics, identity politics, and the re-interpretation of histories. 
Israel has been published online and in print poetry journals and magazines, including, Rise Up, Across The Margin, La Bloga, The Anthology 'Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Justice'. He has two collections of poetry 'Waterhummingbirdhouse: A Poetry Codex' and 'Mexican Jazz Vol. 1'. 

​Sun Birds and Dragons Meet at A Liquor Store in East Los Angeles

​sun birds follow the line of the building sun.
sun birds go dream in the closing sun.

i want to follow that closing light.
under a feather of a thunderbird.

the place of thinnest veils.
the doors of great mystery.

where the heat is ending.
where the cold is beginning breath.

where i have the tendency to quiver.
where i want to fear that cold is not love.

i know our names come home there.
popul vuh's last stanza opening.

i want to como home to this nest of words.
spirals all the songs for takers to sing.

let the daykeepers write theses songs again.
without flesh and bone. let them re dream.

somewhere on Malabar St. and Wabash Avenue
Near the library books burning and the liquor store.

the river of water. on the tip of the tongue.
of desert dragons and the tip of golden light.

of last sun.waiting for us to see all the birds

of the sun. all the wings and water of the sun.

​Seed Song Of Us

​the seeds and rocks
of water in the heart of the sky
trees rooting in the heart of the sun
where make the home of us together
with hands, with permission
with songs dreaming in the desert
blue stone diamond spinning
red faced heart singer
there is nothing left to hurl
but tomorrow's seed
straight into the heart
of the earth
and asked for water and sun
seven arrows of heat
to do away with this
arrogance and ignorance
of seven nations parted
seven masses of people
of this mother earth
so we remember ourselves
where we can reside
and travel home
seven sacred skins
of her back
where we can plant
seeds, build with rock
ladders and temples
and a two legged warrior
played a flute
of her chest and warned
and sang full of sunflowers
"Doomed words, we are all
full of light getting buried
underneath the seeds of our ancestors.
Do you remember all the songs
you are made of? Do you remember
where you really come from?"

so this woven song
we bleed and loom
shooting orchid colors
from our chests
to the mouth of the sun
to the womb of mother earth
to seed water
alive  

​Shadows of a Sunbird On The Concrete

fall in there.
memories of golden fire wings.

i could sing to you.
until all this body dies.
again.

i don't have time.
for a cosmic trip.

i just want to wash
these dishes.

slam this pick against
red earth. carve a home.

carve with shovel.
red snake home.

sunbird.
how do you dream.
those melodies under your wings.

the lightning in your eyes.
the lightning in your screech.

fall over there.
in the memory of your gold.

carve this over and over.
until cottonwoods and widowmakers.

cover your house of sky.
cover this house in the heart of the sky
heart of the earth

how do you get all them.
melodies under your wings.

who cares how crazy i'll be.
tomorrow. i just want to hold.

this crazy. right now.
before it these rays
hit the pavement.