Enmanuel Candelario

I Am Free (Troy Davis) (video performance)

2011-11-06T16:36:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/user/ec1185?blend=22&ob=5#p/a/u/0/35XaSfPsAdE

Poem for a Big Sister (video performance)

2011-10-12T12:16:00.001-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/user/ec1185?blend=22&ob=5

Expectation

2011-04-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

Expectation is a prison.

Let go and you will be free.

Abba

2011-04-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

My father is a strange man
Who at times was a stranger
A boisterous Dominican
But strangely enough
Shrouded his son in silence

My father is a simple man
Que come su arroz y carne sin sazon
Sesenta anos sufriendo en el silencio

I have nightmares
Because I never knew my father’s dreams

I was smitten with resentment
I embraced her jagged figure
18 years, 5 sports and never once
Counted his countenance at a court
I don’t know what my father’s applause sounds like

My quandary:
Knowing where my father is
And still feeling fatherless

He called me yesterday
And in between flat niceties
He said “te quiero”
So I forgave him
Because even when we fall far from the tree
We yearn for our roots

Columbia Social Haiku

2011-02-06T11:14:00.000-08:00

Recently Columbia University created an establishment in the Heights (168th and Broadway) called Columbia Social. This haiku is dedicated to them and their constituency.

Anyone who eats

At Columbia Social

Is a deu-uuuce bag

Butterscotch Skin

2011-02-06T10:39:00.000-08:00

Butterscotch skin
I <3 the way the sun
Kisses your melanin
Deep with your lips
And then it drips
Down to your hips
And it moves slowly
Because even the sun knows
Time with you is precious.

Caramel complexion
I <3 the way the earth
Moves at your discretion
You are the reason seasons change
And why the timeless remains
And why spring comes
At the mention of your name.

The earth knows you
And has blessed you
In it’s image.

You are my favorite color
You are brown skinned
Like god made the outline
And I colored you in
And I took my time
-And I stayed within the lines
But you are more than a color
And truly no one color
Could describe your beauty

You are the color of samba
Danced by almas
Covered in palmas
Remixed and switched to salsa
El color de aire en alta montanas
El color cuando Dios te acompana

Only God could plan this
You are the color of joy
And my heart is your canvas

1 Poem for 1 Bullet

2011-02-06T10:29:00.000-08:00

I thought art did not have the faculties
To support the weight of such tragedy
Yet we are here
Stone faced at ill fate
Tears waiting and ready

We the masters of expression fear our inability
To fully represent our lament
-Look at poets with a loss of words-

I thought a poem had no place here
It is ill equipped to reach even reach the tip
To properly deal with the politicians

Yet we are here
One poem for one bullet
Trying to do what legislation couldn’t
And I thought poems were never meant to
But this has become natural
We have learned from the tradition of our foremothers

Poems protecting the people we are close to
Doing the job the government was supposed to
And the reason THEY did not shed tears
Is why words have a place here.

1 poem for 1 bullet.

La Herida

2011-02-06T09:36:00.000-08:00

La herida
Mas dolorosa
Es la que
No matas

Y no la causa
La bala,
La espada,
O los punos

Es la traicion
Del Corazon

La que te
Deja vivo
Sin esperanza
De un fin

Estrellas (Belleza en Juarez, Mexico)

2011-02-06T08:56:00.000-08:00

Ella tiene estrellas por ojos
Y cuando la miro veo la galaxia
-Soy Galileo

Ella tiene estrellas por ojos
Y cuando la miro me enamoro
-Soy romeo

Da pena que el hombre quisiera que el unvierso
Girara alrededor de el
El hombre no tiene el poder de reconstruir los cielos
Ni el derecho de robar las estellas.

Swine Flu Haiku

2009-11-25T06:13:00.000-08:00

Sean Bell, Amadou
Victims (pardon me) symptoms
Of New York's swine flu.

Me and My Mamí

2009-10-09T03:05:00.000-07:00

We are a dynamic duo
Me and my Mamí.

And we take on the world daily
With chancletas,
Correas, y compassion.

Ella es un héroe
Como supermán.
She leaps tall buildings
And all of that.

But she has no weaknesses
Ella cocina con kryptonite.

My mom is the flash;
Fast enough to be
At two places at once:
Mother and father.

It’s me and my Mamí
Against the world.
And we are writing
The illest duet.

Good Friends

2009-10-08T19:31:00.000-07:00

To my good friends

Solitude.

Sorrow.

And silence.

Thank you

For your company,

For calling,

And for being

On time.

Excerpt 3:

2009-09-18T22:46:00.001-07:00

When you walk by the Sun hides behind the Moon

Urging her to introduce him.

Your smile makes the Sun blush.

He gets embarrassed so he tip toes over the horizon

Stealing one last stare before setting.

You make boys of great men.

Condition of Education (Haiku)

2009-09-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

Curious Query
Quote: “Is our children learning.”
No, no they are not.

This is a verbatim quote from George Walker (Dubya) Bush. He was commenting on the condition of public education. So sad…

Chemistry

2009-09-18T21:46:00.002-07:00

She is of the finest shades of brown,

A caramel complexioned goddess,

Tall and slender to the eyes

But voluptuous to the touch.

Her hair curls beyond her shoulders,

Her smile, the exclamation point to what the world knows—

She is beautiful! As soon as I press my gaze upon her,

My heart double dutches,

My smile checks itself in the mirror, then postures confidently

And my entire being acknowledges and welcomes attraction.

Insecurity (Haiku)

2009-09-18T21:46:00.001-07:00

Do not listen when
Insecurities hunger.
They would eat us all.

Sunflower

2009-09-18T21:44:00.002-07:00

Flowers are
hopeless romantics
they stretch
and grow upwards
trying to
reach the Sun.

Today,
I am your flower
Reaching for the sun,
as if there wasn't
sky and space between us.

Fountain of Youth (Haiku)

2009-09-18T21:44:00.001-07:00

He dipped in her

fountain of youth. I wonder

does he feel younger?

The Problem with Love Poems

2009-09-18T21:41:00.001-07:00

Isn’t that I wrote her one too many

It’s that she’s also a poet

And never wrote me any.

Dear Haiku

2009-09-18T21:40:00.000-07:00

Haiku short and blue
So sorry I could not say
What I wanted too…

Nat Turner (Haiku)

2009-09-18T20:11:00.000-07:00

Why did you do it?

(Cool, clear, calm and collected)

Cuz God told me to.

Background:
Nat Turner led a slave rebellion in the US and murdered the families of White slave masters. When captured they asked him why did he do it, he replied "cuz God told me to."