• by Laurie Posner, MPA, • IDRA Newsletter • January 2019 •
On the occasion of Dr. Robledo Montecel’s retirement, the staff asked former staff member and comadre, Laurie Posner, to write a poem. She presented her artistry, Corazón, at a celebration event in December 2018.
There is heart at the root center of courage.
…
Looking back, it shouldn’t surprise me that we met in a city,
a gathering-place at the edge and intersection,
where streets wailed with ambulances and taxis 15 floors below
and you told me what was possible for children.
…
Cuca, you ignite a room, a city, with possibility.
…
That first meeting, when I left saying, I have met my mentor, would be months before
joining you in Texas where bats tornado from night bridges knowing how
to compose, shift, unify – without seeing – to murmurate
like a starlight symphony.
…
You shared the story with us about geese. How sometimes
they tire mid-air, so it is never enough
just to fly, one has to know when to fall back, tend to the flock
and honk when it goes astray.
…
Again and again in this way, you gadflew –
with comadres y compadres –
against the tide
…
Fighting tirelessly for children,
You had a way of becoming a tide.
…
Strength comes from family, faith, community, you often said.
Travel. Stay curious. Be rooted
…
in places like the great plains of the Rio Grande, south of the Edwards Plateau stretching down
toward the river in a dress of grass and a cloak of oak and mesquite
in Milwaukee’s western shores of Lake Michigan where winter rushes in
like a prize-fighter and, in San Antonio, where grackles gather in a pinking-shears sky
and once-lost-things are often found
…
How did you find this voice that rouses us? You once
told me that a fear of public speaking is overcome by having something that must
– damn it – has to be said.
…
And I learned so much more about embracing – we all did
when you came into a room, in essence saying
Bring everything
…
You call forth a stilling,
a settling in of the heart—beloved Friends, does this say it?
Cuca, you are a presence
in the way of great arcipluvian groves
that carry hope of root and fruit
forward and, in turn, under their own great and generous shade
plant hope
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