Poets Salon: Nurtured by Nature

POETS SALON

in my face
the true colors
of the family (by Alicia Viguer-Espert)

– 05/18/22

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

the bee
still comes to the fallen
jacaranda

~ Kathabela

Ο Ο Ο

Drawing by Robert Stewart

Clark Strand

When I considered the American culture I have lived in all my life, there were any number of reasons to believe that, for better or worse, it would keep going along as it has for the foreseeable future. There was a lot wrong with it; still, it seemed rooted more or less stably in its own traditions. But that turned out to be wrong… One day I was gazing at the white blossoms of a camellia bush when one of them suddenly gave a little shiver…and then fell right off onto the ground. It had been on the verge of falling the whole time I stood there gazing at it…and I hadn’t known.

It was shocking.

camellia blossom:
how close it was to falling
while I gazed at it

Ο Ο Ο

White camelia (Photo – Alicia Viguer-Espert)

Alicia Viguer-Espert

after a night
sapping up
resting on the fence

in every petal
of my flamenco skirt
a red dancer

in my face
the true colors
of the family

Ο

after a night
sapping up
resting on the fence (by Alicia Viguer-Espert)

Nurtured by Nature: Notes and Credits

Clark Strand is the haiku selector and columnist for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review. He lives in Woodstock. New York.

Alicia Viguer-Espert is a poet from Spain living in Los Angeles who loves visiting the Huntington Gardens especially in camellia season.

> You will love to visit with Chen-ou Liu, Debbie Strange and Nikolay Grankin, the beauty of our related salon in 2019, “Finding Our Way Home.”

Submission Guidelines

Suggest your own theme. or write Kathabela for a theme suggestion. We publish every two weeks. Send short poems, free verse, haiku, senryu, tanka, cherita, haibun, tanka prose, short prose poems, etc., or your own unique approach, to Kathabela by text message or (click here to email her directly). We can feature your work again after five months. Multiple Submissions can be saved to appear later:

1. Send a short bio, with comments on your theme.
2. Send photos or artwork by you, or friends.
3. Put your poems directly in the email.
4. No attachments except photos.

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