Poetry Friday: Virgil Suarez

Welcome, Poetry Friday friends.My friend Michael Rothenberg introduced me to a new-to-me poet, Virgil Suarez.  Michael is a poet, founder of 100 Thousand Poets for Change, and art-collaborator with me on the monster poems I've shared in the past.I visited Michael in Tallahassee, Florida in January -- a few short weeks before the lockdown began. He recommended I read The Painted Bunting's Last Molt, Suarez's 2020 book.Suarez's roots are in Cuba, so many of the poems in this book deal with Cuba as a setting, culture, and home of the heart. The pain and dangers of migration and immigration are among the most powerful themes in the collection.Because I am working on a verse novel set on a body of water (the Chesapeake Bay), Suarez's poems resonated with me. Today -- with his permission -- I'm sharing Virgil Suarez's poem "When Leaving the Country of Your Birth." The profound sense of loss in this poem is expressed through a series of questions, connecting the "you" to the land left behind.The poem connected deeply for me as I think about the main character in my WIP, especially the section that begins, "Who will remember you, child?"  When Leaving the Country of Your BirthBy Virgil SuarezWill the wind remember your body, its weightslanted against a white wall?Will the river flood the valleys, carve a new pathinto the roots of mountains?Will palm trees bend and birth coconuts,these yellow beacons in the blinding light?Will buildings crumble into rubble and dust,ruins of memory's instant flash?Will your aunt's parrot still hang by the doorwaythat leads to the patio, calling out, "Mariposa!"Will the sea rush El Malecón in dangerous weather?Will your old house stand in the shadowsof all the plantains your father planted?Will the baobab at the corner grow wider, it's elephantskin roots sunk deep into the earth?Who will remember you, child? Who will sighyour name?Who will greet you there in the old neighborhoodupon your return?Who will say that you are now a "mariposa," nota "gusano"?Who will trace the bread crumbs this far out?Posted with permission of the author -- from The Painted Bunting's Last Molt, by Virgil Suarez.This book is available from University of Pittsburgh press.