Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez - HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010! Best wishes.

Folx,

The jails and prisons, and work farms of USAmerica hold behind bars a large
number of political prisoners -- victims of frame ups and other kinds of FBI
dirty tricks. A disproportionate number of them come from the Black, Latino, and
Indigenous communities. The U.S. government claims that the only real political
prisoners are those held in Guantanamo, and a few others in mainland U.S.A.,
held on suspicion of terrorism.
Only people born yesterday would believe such a claim, but there are not a few
such true believers, blinded by nefarious patriotism,racism, Islamophobia, and
old style anti-Communism, now vented mainly against Cuba, Venezuela, and other
countries united in the ALBA alliance.
Five well known Cuban political prisoners are still being held in U.S. jails,
despite Obama's pledge to bring about democratic change in his country.
Below are two poems from Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez, one of The Cuban Five. He
sent them to supporters on December 23, with greetings for a "HAPPY NEW YEAR
2010! Best wishes. !VENCEREMOS!"
For information about the case of the Cuban Five, and their ongoing resistance
and solidarity, check out the website of the National Committee to Free the
Cuban Five at URL -- http://www.freethefive.org/
Also, They Will Return, at >> http://www.rcm.cu/patriotas/fiscalenglish.htm
And in Canada, URL http://www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca/Documents/CubaFive.shtml
Venceremos. We shall overcome!
Felipe Stuart
Managua, Nicaragua
----------------
GREETINGS from Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez

December 23, 2009, FDC Miami

Dear friends,

With these two poems, I want to reiterate you that we, the Five, feel profoundly
moved and grateful for the permanent solidarity that you give us, so crucial in
this long battle for justice.

DOVES

A big explosion frightens

A flock of harmless doves

As blinding smoke it mushrooms

In startled skies above

The screams of sirens scattered

Then saturate the air

While survivors stunned and listless

Burrow everywhere

Deserted streets are ashened --

Still pregnant with fresh fear

Only sanguinated thorns

Remain in gardens near

Dead bodies grace the vista

Souls walk groping in the fore

T'is a Dantesque scene

Of senseless hate and war

Truth is, this all could happen

In any urban space

As children leave from school...

Just pick the time or place

Unmanifest Apocalypse

In springtime comes unfurled

Spawned by wanton beasts whose unchecked greed

Consumed the world

What will we Humans do

Or the poets we endear,

If terrified, our doves abandon us

For other spheres?


( translated by Gregory James Cato )

THERE WILL BE MORE POETRY

There will be more poetry

Because the Truth

Is like a giant wave

Or a flying horse...

Because ascending over boundaries

Of time and prison bars,

I can contemplate

How a flower blooms,

Because far away

My solitary pain

Can transform itself

Into a bird, singing a song ...

Because I can still remember

The perfume and color

Of that brief morning

Of my last goodbye

Because to keep alive

More than what God could make

It is important to me

What you and I can make

Because as a whisper,

As a volcano with a voice,

Inspiration within me

Lifts, grows and burns ...

Because without freedom,

I have something better ...

That agitates ideas

From my soul to my heart

Something that in the struggle

Of light and Truth

Anoints me as the real Winner

I have what engenders real harmony

I have Love !

Together with you, we will continue until the final victory, which only will be
reached with the return of us to our Homeland.
Greetings to all our friends, with a big fraternal embrace from the Five.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010! Best wishes. !VENCEREMOS!

Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez
-December 23, 2009, FDC Miami