
Margaret Randall: Photo by Jim Norrena

“Then I saw what the calling was :

it was the road I traveled”

- Muriel Rukeyser

My life and work have been profoundly informed by parents who gave me love and adventure, and encouraged creativity; the dramatic desert canyons, rich colors and open skies of the southwestern United States; Socialist ideals; the second wave of feminism; and the generous mentorship of many great friends and colleagues. My children, grandchildren, and great grandchild are always with me, even when far away; and my spouse Barbara is bedrock. New York’s abstract expressionist painters in the 1950s, Mexico and her struggles of the 1960s, the Cuban revolution’s second brave decade in the 1970s, the Vietnamese people’s struggle against US attack and occupation in that same decade, and the Sandinista attempt to change Nicaragua in the early 1980s were places and events that shaped me. The exploration of ancient sites continues to be a source of nourishment, and I have long been involved with oral tradition. I deeply believe in humanistic values, combating our culture of violence and greed, and art as a tool for change. I invite you to enter my website, learn about my books, read my poetry and look at my photographic images.

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Where Do We Go From Here?

Through the cold glass of a winter window
where crazed weather holds my breath
to task,
a tangled canopy of tree and sky
becomes that ornately carved pediment:
Banteay Shrei in late afternoon
just south of where great rivers
are diverted by Chinese dams—
visions of yuan, mouths screaming for profit,
a world where Mao means anything.
A modern woman stands alone
in the stillness of a place
where life may not have been
that different. She tries
to untangle the skeins of (...)

Most recent articles

Latest articles

LA COMANDANTE MAYA
31 May, by Margaret Randall

Who was Rita Valdivia? In October 2017, we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Che Guevara’s death in Bolivia, occasion for tributes throughout the world. Margaret Randall defies the absence of women’s stories in Che’s myth, bringing us the brilliant poetry and powerful personal history of this (...)
By Reynaldo García Blanco
30 April, by Margaret Randall

HONORABLE ROQUE DALTON (REVISITED)
Honorable Roque Dalton, hell or heaven wherever you are we’ve been talking about you for a while. It rained in Medellin and the temperature was ten beers below zero. I despaired because my window looked out on the whores’ quarter and we were talking about (...)
By Yanira Marimón
30 April, by Margaret Randall

Every year, on the same date
to V.F.
I never wanted to be just one among multitudes. My delusional eyes were accustomed to being spectators at an endless raging circus.
I remember it: my feet obeyed the delirious rhythm.
Someone shouted: A little faster! Imperiously
(or another sort of (...)
By Chely Lima
30 April, by Margaret Randall

Confused, uncertain, murky, ambiguous
No one will take notice, that much is clear. You will be confused by your body, your voice trained to sound sweet, inoffensive. But you are you are you are you: A solitary man who lives between two worlds, looks in the mirror and sees only his (...)
By Alfredo Zaldívar
30 April, by Margaret Randall

THE DOG / by Goya
If I had to pick one painting at the Prado Museum The Maidens wouldn’t be my choice / too much for me.
Nor The Surrender of Breda I contemplate sitting on a bench for hours that seemed centuries.
Not even those drunken faces by Velázquez /my favorite painter, /the piece of (...)