9 780985 170554

ISBN-13 9780985170554ISBN-10 098517055-7

51500

Culture of flow

tim Z. HernandeZ

Poetry - $15.oo

m o n k e y P u Z Z l e P r e s s . C o m

Cu

lt

ur

e o

f fl

ow

ti

m Z. H

er

na

nd

eZ

“Hernandez puts us in the flow of history, the poems read or spill into us like a chant or a drum beat that opens into older ceremonies, cultures and peoples flow into each other, the ancient pulse under the current of the industrial and modern age breathing fire, he brings the global barrios into one setting, the connections of the world are alive within him.”

Victor Hernandez cruz

ChanCellor of the aCademy of ameriCan Poets and author of The MounTain in The Sea

Digging up words, digging for meaning, finding water, flowing. Tim Z. Hernandez is a voice that calls from the wilderness, that calls to civilization, that calls for our attention.

More Praise for

Culture of flow

“In Culture of Flow, Tim Z. Hernandez seeks to know/ show what ‘Nature’ really means, and the ‘Proof is in the detritus.’ This book is rich in detritus, rich in variable space, rich in flow, like language, like the globe. Hernandez digs for the ideas, digs up the words, and immediately digs the opposite, and lets them dance. His sound and rhythm (rhythm of sound, rhythm of unsound) surpleases.”

Jack collom, author of ExchangEs of Earth & sky

“Culture of Flow cuts through and exposes centuries of impacts upon the land and its people while chasing the dynamics of water in a wild fluvial process of its own. With both power and unpredictability, his poetic line is like the San Joaquin River that, in the end, will have the last word.”

John c. DoffElmyEr, author of Proclaiming sPacE

Monkey Puzzle Press

Denver, ColoraDo

tim Z. HernandeZ

Culture of flow

Copyright © 2012 by tim Z. hernandeZ

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief excerpts. Printed in the United States of America.

covEr art

Silvia Chenault

covEr & Book DEsign

Nate Jordon

monkEy PuzzlE PrEss1548 Krameria St.

Denver, Colorado 80220monkeypuzzlepress.com

ISBN-10: 0-9851705-5-7

ISBN-13: 978-0-9851705-5-4

For

Andre Yang

Rey Leon

Everardo Pedraza

Lee Herrick

flow

ta b l e o f Co n t e n t s

culturE of flow / 1

fiElD notEs / 41

a lEttEr to thE garDEnEr / 43

BluE hEron on BElmont avEnuE / 49

autumn / 53

a wounD to BlamE / 57

rEincarnation / 59

aDoBo / 62

how to gEt to thE san Joaquin rivEr / 70

flow towarD rEstoration (a chant for Dams, anD sB1070) / 79

…don’t put your finger out, don’t dare put your finger out,

because the pigeons are eating meat now,

because the baby calf, fed on milk and kept tender

in total darkness, is buying a gun.

Inside books the trees are screaming revenge.

— Victor Martinez, National Geographic

I’m about ready to step

over the border of this painting

into my other life, the one where

I’m keeper of the fish.

— Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni,

The Bee Keeper Discusses His Charges

Cu l t u r e o f fl o w

Cu lt u r e o f fl ow

1

ti M z. He r na n D e z

2

Propaganda

tsunami the tilted metropolis

(ashe Fukushima—

E V E R Y

W H E R E

wind

water

torrent

3

Cu lt u r e o f fl ow

welfare

wars of water

wind down

from Sierra Nevadas

or the great Colorado nimbus dream

Where Water Flows Food Grows

read the billboards of the backroads

and the Highways—

Dust devils spin words,

the illusory image

of water glances

a blow across the Big Bank Vault

water so fluid, becomes politico form

the sand dollar

drops

4

ti M z. He r na n D e z

in New Orleans, Jersey

Haiti Lost

Lake

where Hmong,

Mexicanos, Mixtecos & other

immigrantalienwetbackrefugees

remix a song from the pages of Popol Vuh,

—limp poles fish for suckers

and empty cans bob, hands bend and dig

the earth, the betabel, red as graffiti tag

sprayed in Yokut grinding hole,

5

Cu lt u r e o f fl ow

no body of water draws lines so

no bank so rigid

to bend the currency

or force the point of

liquidity)

fluid

flush

6

ti M z. He r na n D e z

Fish or man?

Them or us?

Big water takes little water.

(as in the fable

of Narciso who

discovered

a formlessness that had already been

discovered

before any thought

of discovery

had been patented by Cortez

—Slayer of Seven Waters.

7

Cu lt u r e o f fl ow

{ EROSION }

At the end of the day—

what do I know about flow

or flood?

Or how an ammonite

effects a mountain peak

authored by the cherub plume

of the Creator’s handless hand

and mindless mind?

What do I really know

of the acequia, or the evergreen,

8

ti M z. He r na n D e z

or of Muir’s nagging limp, for that matter,

What about switchbacks?

Who really knows the depths of the Brewer Bird’s black?

(True account #1:

I once saw sunlight

spill from a Walking Weed

pressed between pages

of John Muir’s journals—

9

Cu lt u r e o f fl ow

in the stem was the same luminosity

that happens each Spring

when the sun cuts through

the bullshit

of all Great Valleys.

10

ti M z. He r na n D e z

aC k n o w l e d G m e n t s

These poems were written from Spring 2008 through Winter of 2010, a period in which my day job was located on the floor of the San Joaquin River in Fresno, California—possibly the most depleted river west of the Mississippi, and subject to ongoing debates about water, fish and farming. It is my hope here that these words contribute to the ever-evolving examination of all things “natural.” Thank you to my friends at the San Joaquin River Parkway & Conservation Trust for sharing your guidance, wisdom, and generosity, especially Saundra Plett, for taking a chance

Pu b l i C a t i o n aC k n o w l e d G m e n t s

A few of these poems have been published (in various forms) in the following: The Devil’s Punchbowl: A Cultural and Geographic Map of California, Red Hen Press; Bombay Gin, Naropa University; and Uncontained: Writers and Photographers in the Garden and the Margins, Baksun Books.

ab o u t t H e au t H o r

Tim Z. Hernandez is an award winning writer and performer orig-inally from California. His debut collection of poetry, Skin Tax, received the 2006 American Book Award, and his debut novel, Breathing, In Dust, was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered. It went on to receive the 2010 Premio Aztlán Prize in Fiction, and was a finalist for the California Book Award. In 2011, Hernandez was named one of sixteen New American Poets by the Poetry So-ciety of America. He is a frequent visiting author at Universities and institutions across the U.S. and has performed in venues such as L.A.’s Getty Center, Stanford University, Dixon Experimental Theater in New York City, and Denver Center for the Perform-ing Arts. He holds a B.A. in Writing & Literature from Naropa University, and an M.F.A. from Bennington College in Vermont. He currently lives in Colorado where he works for the Center for the Book and teaches fiction at Naropa University.

9 780985 170554

ISBN-13 9780985170554ISBN-10 098517055-7

51500

Culture of flow

tim Z. HernandeZ

Poetry / $15.oo

m o n k e y P u Z Z l e P r e s s . C o m

Cu

lt

ur

e o

f fl

ow

ti

m Z. H

er

na

nd

eZ

“Hernandez puts us in tHe flow of History, the poems read or spill into us like a chant or a drum beat that opens into older ceremonies, cultures and peoples flow into each other, the ancient pulse under the current of the industrial and modern age breathing fire, he brings the glob-al barrios into one setting, the connections of the world are alive within him.”

Victor Hernandez cruz

ChanCellor of the aCademy of ameriCan Poets and author of the mountain in the sea