niterote

[niterote]

Whales

You don't have to believe

every skin you have shed.

You may swim, drink,

and make devotions to the shore

with the whales nearer.

Until leaning into the veil of breath

you share with everything,

especially the whales,

the experience of outliving,

of being abandoned by water

like a forgotten pillar of waves

making devotions to the shore.

#poetry #seasons #eclipse #whales

[niterote]

Mask

inside your wolf mask

a jaguar mask

inside my throat

the spine of inundation

inside the body

is a petrified forest

on the thighs of a god

who has never seen the sun

let me practice on your pain

a shape so familiar

it clots inside my throat

with the taste of iron

#poetry #seasons #eclipse #love #lovers

[niterote]

Spine

Let them tattoo your spine with scars,

let the universe spit in your mouth,

be a feral canvas for the colors

of suffering and joy in the light.

These warm creatures,

panting and breathing fog,

live and die too fast

to see how these redwoods came to be,

the oldest gods lying down

so we may cross the pale river.

#seasons #winter #redwoods #poetry #spillied ink

[niterote]

the neck of the day

lets a crane roll in on the breeze

as the fog lands

#haiku #senryu #zappai #winter #seasons

[niterote]

Fall is hidden and buried

when red leaves in the air are caught

in corner of my eye

Fall is open, exposed when

the leaves don't know how to fall around me anymore

rusting like an iris

#haiku #senryu #zappai #poetry #love #seasons #fall leaves #autumn #fall #fall foliage

[niterote]

November gives the bird song

back to late dawn in selfish robes.

I attend the story of the rose, half lion.

The coven of your shoulder blades

casts a lost spell as

you write me the perfect poem

hidden in your dreams.

#seasons #poetry #love

[niterote]

Octobers

Your eyes are all October,

but I can’t see what you see.

My hope is a temple

that will not fall.

It will take you into yourself

and keep you.

This unremarkable darkness

gathered with great intention

is so easily lost.

Like missing cats,

a whole realm of missing cats,

and you could find them.

#poetry #seasons #poem #winter #lovers #cats

[niterote]

I wish the sky was real,

the way I saw books I couldn't touch in your room,

like stars puncturing the walls of your skin.

To the children walking without solitude in the desert,

swimming away from the murdered star

even the sky is a statue of tears.

If nothing else, it's a clue about your cancer.

These plateaus descend in opposite directions

but their destination the same,

this failure is a strand of the sky too.

#poetry #seasons #moon #zappai #darkstar #poem

[niterote]

Senescence

Would October change its mind

if carefully the roots descend

a golden wound of towers

seeking a dark loam to break into

knowing what rubied tempers hold

knowing what wet leaves forget

and if the way of soul is descent

would October change its mind?

#senryu #poetry #seasons #darkstar #fall #autumn #winter #poetic

[niterote]

The Act of Letting Go of Remembering

Our ancestors taught us

to remember small things

and big things,

Our Lady of Guadalupe

and the service

of a ladybug.

Then they showed us

the whole act

of life is letting go.

If you could have

seen my grandmother

waiting to follow

the little man

through the stone arch

of the french chapel,

she would have shown us

how to let go

of a pancreas,

a country,

and the sins

of a husband

hunting jaguars

in the jungle.

The tip of her index finger

is missing,

like her last August.

She could still teach us,

to let go of each other.

But then grandmother why are we here?

#Ancestors #poetry #magic #loss #grandmothers #grief

[niterote]

before the sunrise

the fog has a moment of intimacy

with desert sage

#haiku #senryu #zappai #desert #sunrise

[niterote]

the mountain wears smoke

around its neck

the forest fire is a ruby

#haiku #senryu #zappai #seasons #summer #poetry #wildfires #forest fires

[niterote]

wildfires undress the forests

the unbearable lightness of smoke

weights all horizons

#haiku #senryu #zappai #seasons #summer #wildfires #smoke #fire

[niterote]

the sun leaves everyday

August is a child of the moon

that plays with wildfires

#haiku #senryu #zappai #seasons

[niterote]

August and I hold hands

scared children of the moon

playing with sunlight

#haiku #senryu #zappai #poetry #seasons #moon

[niterote]

June lets me go

I eat raspberries from your hand

gently crushed by the sun

#haiku #senryu #zappai #poetry #short poem #sunshine #June #seasons #Summer Solstice #solstice

[niterote]

the morning doesn't know

how long can the sun hold its breath

the evening exhales

#haiku #senryu #zappai #poetry #seasons #loss #solstice #summer #summer solstice