New Project & New Poem: North Minneapolis

i was fortunate to receive a Minnesota State Arts grant. But i am also fortunate to be working with a great friend and amazing photographer Andrew Macdonald (http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewmacdonald/)

I am really excited about this project!

with Andrew's photos and my words we plan to put together a chapbook/zine out in september of 2009 of poetry inspired by pictures or vice versa. i am trying to push myself to explore other facets of writing and expression. this is new to me, but i am enjoying it. here is a work in progress i wanted to share with you all. drop comments.



North Minneapolis



Sunlight blinds people when they wake up together
But trees embrace them, like family reunions
They touch the tips of the tree for nourishment
As they stretch like babies arms looking for someone to pick them up
While smoke stacks and the city look on.
Sunlight punctures the smoke and wakes the cold hard pavement
Cracks and ice look for shadows to hide in
Stop signs to be in
Bridges to call home
Human flesh detest these mornings
And shadows do too
Clear skies call it a new day
Trees call it more life
Rivers see it as seasons
Minnesotans call it real winter
Writers call it inspiration avant-garde
But the sunlight
Sees all through a magnifying glass
Up close and intimate
It has seen millenniums of mornings like this one
More than we care to count or feel
Millions more with out us
But nothing like this one
The sunlight calls it freedom
We call it north Minneapolis


Rodrigo Sanchez-Chavarria January 2009