amea_2010.indd


Association of Mexican American American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2010

POEMS

The Great Mother Wails

Antonia Darder
University of Illinois

 
The Earth extends her arms to us;
Revealing through her nature the 

changing condition of our existence.

 She bends and twists, 
Defl ecting the swords of

Our foolishness,
Our arrogance,
Our gluttony,
Our deceit.

 Unbridled by red alerts or amber warnings,
Her ire gives rise to monsoon winds,

Jarring us from the stupor of
Our academic impunity;

Our disjointed convolutions,
Our empty promises; our
black and white dreams.

 
Filled with unruly discontent, 

we yearn to dominate her mysteries;
reducing her to microscopic dust,

we spit upon her sacredness,
tempting the fury of her seas.

 We spill our unholy wars
upon her belly’s tender fl esh, 
blazing dislocated corpses,
ignite her agony and grief.

 Still, in love with her creations,
she warns of our complacency

to cataclysmic devastation,
rooted in the alienation of

our disconnection
our rejection, 

our oppression,
our scorn.

 And still, we spin ungodly 
tantrums of injustice 

against her love, 
against ourselves,

against one another.
 

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Association of Mexican American American Educators (AMAE) Journal © 2010

When will we remove blindfolds from our eyes?
When will we stretch our arms—to her?

When will the cruelty of our
Hatred cease; teaching us to
abandon the impositions of

patriarchy and greed?
 

Oh! that we might together renew
Our communion with the earth,

She, the cradle of humanity;
She, the nourishment of our seeds;
She, the beauty of the song within;

She, the wailing that precedes. 
 

                        -Antonia Darder (2008)
 
 

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