Commissions y Corridos: Poems

By Hakim Bellamy

Hakim Bellamy’s latest collection rings with the same power and grace as the people he lauds within its pages, including Nikki Giovanni and Martin Luther King Jr. He celebrates Albuquerque and New Mexico, taking the good with the bad, and reminds Burqueños that any day when you wake up along the Río Grande is a good day. As Bellamy celebrates the power of creativity and community within the city and the nation, he also demands that we face our society’s faults, especially those of racism, racial profiling, and law-enforcement violence. The poems collected here insist that with the power to do right, people also have a responsibility to themselves, their loved ones, and complete strangers to be better and strive harder. Undoubtedly Bellamy is leading this charge, lighting the way for anyone ready to listen.

• Language: English
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press
• Release date: Aug 15, 2021
• ISBN: 9780826363183

Hakim Bellamy

Hakim Bellamy served as the inaugural Albuquerque Poet Laureate. He is the author of Swear and Prayer Flag Poems and the coauthor of We Are Neighbors.

Book preview

ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF CORRIDOS: A SONG FOR THE NEW MEXICO CENTENNIAL

In the first chapter

of the Gospel

according to Anaya

Rudolfo writes . . .

"All of the older people spoke only Spanish,

and I myself understood only Spanish . . ."

. . . in English.

¡Bienvenidos Albuquerque!

I myself understand only English

. . . in Diné.

We speak many languages

but mean the same thing,

and mañana will be more of the same.

Familia.

Food.

Fiesta.

Forever.

(sung) Come on and sing along!

We’re going to

Familia . . .

Comida . . .

Fiesta . . .

Forever . . .

For one hundred years BC

before the Commodores

before Lionel Ritchie

and for a hundred years more

we’ve farmed, feasted, and fixed cars.

We’ve moved people

and mixed razas,

we’ve got an appointment with the