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. 

---

Setu, June 2022

Western Voices: Lorraine Caputo

Bio:

Lorraine Caputo is a documentary poet, translator and travel writer. Her works appear in over 150 journals in Canada, the US, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa; 12 chapbooks of poetry – including Caribbean Nights (Red Bird Chapbooks, 2014), Notes from the Patagonia (dancing girl press, 2017) and the upcoming On Galápagos Shores (dancing girl press, 2019); and 18 anthologies. Caputo has done over 200 literary readings, from Alaska to the Patagonia. She travels through Latin America, listening to the voices of the pueblos and Earth.

MEDITATING A STORM

I hear the thunder

& before it

disappears

I stop, I still

my self,

telling Changó

I am here

It sounds like an aeroplane

flying so high, its roar

reverberating off the clouds

                        To what distant lands

                        shall I travel?

           

            My thoughts begin to stray

            the thunder rolls closer

            to my mind

It sounds like a battle

between celestial forces

tremendous blows,

nuclear explosions

                        What challenges

                        must I yet face?

It now rides off

into the distance

Catbird & other songs

fill this calmer morn

yet bathed

by the rain

PATAGONIAN NIGHT VOYAGE

In the waning

half-moon sky

stars slide

over the gently

undulating horizon

of the treeless

Patagonian plain

seeped by the deep chill

of this autumn night

---

Western Voices :: Setu, February 2019