I don't want to belong

Concepción Sámano

Concepción Sámano

Concepción Sámano has published in México and the U.S., including her most recent poetry collection “El invierno en la venta (The winter in the window).” This poem, “Sin ataduras (I don’t want to belong)” was awarded first place in the Oregon Poetry Association fall contest's Spanish category. Translator: Arturo Sarmiento.

I don't want to belong
I want freedom
beyond love
beyond motherland and family
without ritual ties
smoothly hovering away over the lightness
of the fog
over the streams of the rivers
without any hurry
as the sap is in the Sequoia's trunk
the sands hang from the wind
dragging away beaches and deserts to the cities
of the other side of the world.

I don't want to be a bird
I want to be the singing
the flying beyond wings
free from the myth and drama
of the man who wanted to fly
but was prevented by his beliefs

I don't want a community
a jungle of hives and herds
I want to be the moisture from the rain
the transparency of the water drop
perfume of rose and carnation
the burning balsam of copal
the cosmic ray that overcomes the darkness of the universe
the explosion of the star
I want to be
without feeling any remorse for the destruction
neither ambition for building more than nothing
not the mountain but the highs
the sight of the eagle
not the word but its strength
and build a world for myself
to conjure the soul
to encourage the spirit to a new birth.

I don't want to be what I think
I don't own the idea
I am what it is further beyond my thoughts.

This work was written by a Lane County author.

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