A man in a wheelchair reading a book under a tree on a sunny day.
Photos: Elizabeth Escobar – ibY (2021).

¡Hola!

I'm Ekiwah Adler Beléndez,

a Mexican North American poet who travels the world in a wheelchair. I have cerebral palsy.

I'm the author of six poetry books and the proud father of Lucio Valentin, my 9-year-old. 

ME IN FOUR SENTENCES

Since childhood, I've had the tremendous privilege to read my published work and conduct writing workshops at conferences worldwide, including Mexico, the U.S., Germany, Hungary, and Canada. And recently, I received the George Garrett Award for distinguished poetry teaching. All that means is I love engaging in lengthy conversations about poetry and delving deep. But my story is more complicated than my Curriculum Vitae – so here it is:

My mission

I have a passion: I believe that reading, writing, and celebrating poetry can ignite creativity, offer new solutions to complex problems, and even save lives. Poetry is my antidote against solitude, a way to embrace my body and my wheelchair, to move past and within limits into nearly unbound imaginative freedom. That's the freedom I seek to share with others. Poetry can save lives. I say it with such certainty because it saved mine.


As a disability activist in Mexico and abroad, I'm aware that many people with disabilities are excluded from society, living unemployed or confined with their parents, infantilized by their environment, waiting for their adult lives to start. 


So, my poetry book, "Amor sobre ruedas," deals with the complexities and joys of being a lover and father in a wheelchair, detailing my journey from self-pity to pride. I believe it is an excellent way to listen and shed light on uncomfortable conversations that can happen in jails, hospitals, psychiatric asylums, rehab centers for addicts, low-income schools, and even people's private homes.

Photo: Elizabeth Escobar – ibY (2021).
Man with very skinny legs due to cerebral palsy sunbaths happily while laying down.

My timeline (so far)

A young man with braces smiles for the camera on a plane, suggesting a major and exciting trip ahead.
Photo: Dhyan Adler-Beléndez (2000s).

1999

At the age of 12, I published my first book of poetry, "Soy," with the support of The Institute of Culture of Morelos. My second collection, "Palabras Inagotables," was introduced by the renowned Mexican journalist and novelist, Elena Poniatoska.

"Ekiwah clings to literature like coral reefs to the Sea, like a hummingbird to flowers." —Elena Poniatowska

2003

My life was featured on NBC Dateline and the NY Daily News, showcasing how a generous surgeon, Dr. Roy Nuzzo, saved me from the brink of death when my spinal column collapsed against my lungs. His motivation was to bail a poet out of trouble. Poetry and human generosity have literally saved my life from the start. It was my poetry books that inspired Roy Nuzzo to raise funds for one of the most expensive surgeries in the world. 

A screenshot of a NBC news article called "To save the body and voice of a poet."
"Ekiwah's poetry is razor-sharp. It cuts." —Dr. Roy Nuzzo, surgeon, featured in "The Gift," an interview of Ekiwah and Roy Nuzzo on NBC DATELINE."
Poet Mary Oliver. She is a woman wearing glasses and a black jacket, exuding elegance and sophistication.
"Ekiwah takes to metaphor as to a Wise Brother. To speak of Ekiwah, his spirit and his work, is a gift in itself." ⎯the late Mary Oliver, poet  
Mark Lennihan/AP (1992) & The Guardian (2019). Retrieved from Mary Oliver, Pulitzer prize-winning poet, dies aged 83.

2010s

I've been honored to read poetry alongside Mary Oliver in Provincetown, MA at the Fine Arts Work Center. My self-published book, "The Coyote's Trace," features her beautiful preface. I've performed my poetry at roughly 35 venues worldwide including at the two largest literary gatherings in the U.S.: The Dodge Poetry Festival and AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs), where I received the 2019 George Garrett Literary Teaching Award.

Read my poem "Evening Summer Rain" A poem for Mary Oliver

Evening Summer Rain


For Mary Oliver


To realize 

fire and water are not enemies 

      only twins knotted 

in the braids of lightning;


to unlatch my mouth 

      and unfurl my tongue

for the electricity

of each tingling drop—


to move toward the storm 

     and be drenched by it, deliberately—is a reckless 

summer act.


But you and I know why 

we have been busy

       soaking the moment in 

without rushing 

for shelter. We hope for nothing less 


than Heaven itself

plummeting down

into our bodies!


⎯ "Amor sobre Ruedas" by Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez (Editorial 17, 2021)

2020's

My latest book, "Amor sobre ruedas" (Love on wheels), delves into the taboo subject of coming to grips with love, longing, and sex in a wheelchair. It's a brief biographical novel written as poetry. Poems from that collection have been featured in The Pushcart Prize XXXV: Best of the Small Presses (2011 Edition), "Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability," edited by Sheila Black, American Athenaeum journal, the Massachusetts Review, and in 36 other publications.

"I learned about his first two books, "I Am" and "Inexhaustible Words," published when he was twelve and thirteen years old respectively. That which began at an early age has given its fruits with a poetic maturity that never stops questioning and being surprised by the true power of words." —Francisco Hinojosa, children's writer
A man with a beard and bushy hair holds up a copy of his book "Amor sobre rudeas," showing pride and joy.
Photo: Dhyan Adler-Beléndez (2021).

Read my poem: "Love Song to My Motorized Wheelchair"

Love Song to My Motorized Wheelchair


I often forget you. You 

are cranky and lumbering.


But then I turn you on

and I remember 

I love you


especially on high speed

I love you recklessly

rolling with me 


my joystick is yours 

throbbing in full gear

as we bump


denting the floor.


You wait for me to

charge you up

and you come squealing  

                             asking for more!


If I don't please you 

your weight 

might crush my bones.


You love to see me wriggling 

and when I try to pull out of you

you hold me inside.


Oh my dark dawn!

Oh my loyal taskmaster!

Oh my electric,

steel tempered mistress!


⎯ "Amor sobre ruedas" by Ekiwah Adler-Beléndez (Editorial 17, 2021)

"I’m a mother who has tried to do everything for my deaf son. But [Ekiwah's] poetry reading has made me realize that I've been so focused on finding solutions for his deafness, maybe I've missed out on who he is beyond that. Thanks to your reading I know there are many ways of 'hearing' and 'walking.' You have changed my life." —Anonymous mother who attended a poetry reading

Beyond the résumé . . . 

POETRY AND HUMAN RIGHTS

I bring poetry into the community. And its a calling.


As an ambassador for its power to heal – following the tradition of poets like Robert Bly, Coleman Barks, and Fran Quinn – I don't just read my own work at these events but celebrate out loud others I admire, including works by poets like Rumi, Rosario Castellanos, and Pablo Neruda. Afterwards, I open a space for the participants to create their own poems and reflect on their lives.


I've presented some of the results of my students' poetry created at the workshops into a collection, as the editor of "Acto de Presencia,"(Sedesol, Con Nosotros, A.C.) and in a 6-episode podcast (Mexico's Secretary of Culture, British Council). 

A man in a wheelchair accompanied by a child in a wheelchair as well, showcasing inclusivity and togetherness. 2.) The man in a wheelchair gives his student with disabilities the mic in public court, eluding passion and subversion.
Photos: (1.) Laura Wong Partida (2019). Centro de Estudios Educativos, A.C. (2.) ConNosotros-Educación Conducido. All retrieved from Facebook.

Help my ongoing projects

In my poetry readings and workshops, I aim to tune into the questions, emotions, and worries that occupy people's thoughts as they gather in the room. I seek out poems that speak to these inquiries. There's a sense of mystery, a lingering issue, an unspoken concern that needs addressing. While I may not have all the answers, that's precisely what being a poetry detective is all about – enabling the poems people read and create to explore and celebrate life. I believe that poetry can serve as a means to probe into fresh solutions, new questions, and different answers – something I'm doing in all these projects below.

Here's a taste:

A young man and woman with intellectual disabilities kiss, leaning into each other with joy.

Mom with an Intellectual Disability, Torn from Baby – We Fight for the Right of Kin with Poetry

An orphanage hired me to give a poetry reading thanks to my sponsors. I'm keeping the orphanage anonymous to protect its privacy. Through the course of the poetry reading, the participants were vulnerable, and so the elephant in the room emerged: in the orphanage, two young adults with intellectual disabilities got pregnant. The mother was separated from her child and forced to abandon the loving environment of the orphanage due to an untrue stigma that someone with an intellectual disability can't be a legitimate parent. I used poetry with the orphanage staff to empathize with the mother's and father's feelings and needs, encouraging more compassion. 


But she needs more help to find her child and give the residents with intellectual disabilities sex education tools while they create poetry. Donate.

An older father stands proudly above his son smiling and sitting below in a wheelchair.

Homelessness Looms: the race to house near-paralyzed Juan Carlos

A young man named Juan Carlos, who is my poetry student and is in a wheelchair, was suddenly faced with his father's colon cancer. Juan Carlos and his father suffer from financial scarcity and don't have the support of family that can help. Through a poetry reading, I started a campaign that literally kept Juan Carlos off the streets. As his father faces chemo yet again, more funds must be raised, and more poems and poetry readings must be offered to fuel the fire. 


We need to keep poetry rolling, keep Juan Carlos off the streets! Donate.

A man with bushy hair holds up papers, as if revolting or protesting, at an illegal dumping ground with mountains of trash in Mexico.

Tezontepec's Air Pollution Crisis: Toxic Mine, Silent Officials

In Tezontepec, Mexico, a neighborhood is facing serious health hazards due to toxic fumes from an abandoned mine overwhelmed with illegal dumping by industrial companies. The residents are struggling to make themselves heard by officials (even the law is failing them), so we created poems about their love for nature and the loss of clean air, as a form of peaceful protest. With the help of environmentalist Ron Sawyer, we plan to funnel these powerful testimonies of the residents to advocate for human-first waste management plans. 


We see the mess we are and honor it as we fight for clean air! Donate.

Family rights photo by Down Sydrome UK. Retrieved from their site. Date unknown. (above)
House Juan Carlos photo – Carlos family (2023). Retrieved from Facebook. (above)
Tezontepec photos retrieved from Complejo Cultural Los Pinos' Facebook (2020) and Google images.
A man wearing inmate clothing holds his hands up in the air – suggesting he is trying to catch a basketball during a prison courtyard game.
CURRENT FUNDRAISER

Poetry goes to prison

You can help bring poetry and creativity to the lives of incarcerated teenagers, providing an outlet for self-expression and inspiring hope for a better future. Go back home to learn more.