Time's Language II

Margaret Randall (New York, 1936) is a poet, essayist, oral historian, translator, photographer, and social activist. She lived in Latin America for 23 years (in Mexico, Cuba, and Nicaragua). With Mexican poet Sergio Mondragón she founded, and from 1962 to 1969 co-edited, El Corno Emplumado / The Plumed Horn, a bilingual literary quarterly that published some of the best new work of the sixties. She is the author of over 150 books, and is considered nothing less than a counter-cultural hero and feminist icon.

Contents
Margaret’ s Hands, by Barbara Byers
Author’ s Note xii
Made Rich by Art and Revolutionxiii
Introduction: The poem happens on its own terms xv by Katherine M. Hedeen and Ví ctor Rodrí guez Nú ñ ez From Against Atrocity San Antonio, Texas: Wings Press 2019
Counting Backward 2
Crisscrossing this Generous Nest 4
The Rains Themselves Made No Excuse 6
Every Outdated Map 7
Every Fear Receives a Million Hits 9
The World is Flat 10
Memory Rounds the Corner 12
The Verb to break 13
She Knows 15
2020 18
Memory as a Physics Problem 22
From Starfish on a Beach: The Pandemic Poems San Antonio, Texas: Wings Press 2020
Statistics 26
Beneath the Waves 28
State of Exception 29
Spiral 31
Eighty Times More 33
From Out of Violence into Poetry San Antonio, Texas: Wings Press 2020
One Tectonic Plate Slipping Beneath Another 36
Out of Violence into Poetry 38
Voice 40
Lifetime Warranty 41
Tongue Seeking Solace 43
Molecules Sometimes Wonder 45
Each Toy Argues its Future 47
The Hole October Leaves 49
With Memory Clinging to My Back 51
Those Memories We’ ve Forgotten 53
Memory and Echo Play Together in a Modern-Day Garden of Eden 55
From Stormclouds Like Unkept Promises Abiquiu, New Mexico: Casa Urraca Press 2022
About the Light 58
Still Life, Winter 2021 60
Every Death an Act of Survival 61
My Mother’ s Breasts 64
Your Story, Your Escape 66
Medusa 67
Talk is Cheap 68
Prometheus Punished 69
Drops of Blood on White Snow 71
Gretel and Hansel 73
Backward Feet 75
Malintzí n 77
Waiting Our Turn 79
Writing the Future 81
From Vertigo of RiskAbiquiu, New Mexico: Casa Urraca Press 2023
Dearest Ruth 84
Dearest Mark 86
Dearest Laurette 88
Dearest Felipe 91
Dearest Roque 93
Dearest Maru 95
Dearest Paul 98
Dearest Ceferino 100
Dearest Kathy102
Nepantla104
When I Lived108
Geode110
Back to Front or Inside Out111
My Father’ s Eyes113
Becoming Ourselves114
All Those Years Ago116
My Theory of Nothing118
The Sum of One and One120
Understanding Metaphor122
When I Die123
Never the Compliment it Pretends125
Desert127
The Acequias129
Water’ s Desire130
Ode to Typography131
Footprints137
The Hole in Your Calendar139
Dubious Gifts142
Not Even the Cheetah144
From HomeAbiquiu, New Mexico: Casa Urraca Press 2023
This Home on My Back148
Home as Oxymoron151
The Shame no Wearable Can Erase152
The Great Houses, Chaco155
Nothing but Need at their Side160
A Different Language162
Their Houses165
If Forced to Go169
Adobe Dreams171
What I Harvest173
Homeless175
What We Can Pretend We Do Not See177
Faked Orgasms and Beloved Books179
Non-Negotiable181
This Table182
From Your Answer is Your Map Green River, Vermont: Bob & Susan Arnold’ s Longhouse, 2023
Our Progress is Plastic and Cement186
The Cranes are Coming189
Your Answer is Your Map191
Change193
Uncollected PoemsLife as It Was198
Moving from Escher to Silence200
Failed Translation?203
Waving Goodbye to the Shadow of Myself207
Silence210
Room 5007212
About the Author223
About the Authors of the Introduction225