Poetry: Lorraine Caputo

Lorraine Caputo

COLD MOON NIGHT

 

That midnight rain begins,

a soft scuttle across my roof,

 

rivulets streaming off the tejas,

rivulets flowing between cobblestones

 

of the narrow streets …

low fog slinks into the folds

 

of the jaguar valley, obscuring

the slopes of volcanoes & mountains,

 

obscuring the newly full moon,

a green comet, the stars

 

a rain soft,

a lullaby for this

 

Cold Moon Night …

***

 

 

 

NIGHT PULSE

 

yonder beyond

shadow

mountains silent

 

lightning pulsates

over

night-black jungle

***

 

 

 

THE STILLNESS

 

Tonight

there is

a

stillness

of light

 

Bright specks

marking

homes

& streets

do not

 

shimmer

 

The sole

movement

are

fireworks

shooting

 

skyward

marking

the

Virgen’s

feast days

***

 

 

 

THE HOUSE OF ONE THOUSAND WINDOWS

 

A hodge-podge house,

naked adobe

 

patched with white wash,

rambling, bare windows –

 

small or large panes or

mere slits – all facing

 

at many angles …

This casa sprouts

 

from the river’s banks

greened by willows

 

& elderberry.

***

 

THE WARNING

 

The temperature drops

          the wind picks up,

rumbles crumple

          over western mountains.

 

A warning of the

          cold rain to come

 

                    downpouring, pelting

                              upon empty holiday streets,

                    lightning flashing

                              outside my window

 

& thunder pounding

          upon this tin roof.

***

 

Biography

Lorraine Caputo is a documentary poet, translator and travel writer. Her works appear in over 300 journals on six continents, such as Prairie Schooner (US), Revista Máquina Combinatoria (Ecuador), StepAway (UK), Erothanatos (India), Cordite Poetry Review (Australia) and Bakwa (Cameroon); and 20 collections of poetry – including On Galápagos Shores (dancing girl press, 2019) and Caribbean Interludes (Origami Poems Project, 2022). She also pens travel pieces, with narratives appearing in the anthologies Drive: Women's True Stories from the Open Road (Seal Press) and Far Flung and Foreign (Lowestoft Chronicle Press), and articles and guidebooks. Her writing has been honored by the Parliamentary Poet Laureate of Canada (2011) and nominated for the Best of the Net. She has done over 200 literary readings, from Alaska to the Patagonia. Ms Caputo journeys through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth. Follow her travels at: www.facebook.com/lorrainecaputo.wanderer or https://latinamericawanderer.wordpress.com. 

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Setu, June 2022