NEW PUBLICATIONS : Poetic and Travel – May 2018

It has been a few crazy months, with not only commissioned articles and poetry submissions, but also proofreading a dissertation and translating poetry.

And, indeed, my poetry and travel writing continue to appear in journals and on websites around the world. Spend the afternoon browsing through the list (with links) below, journeying to Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, Chile, Colombia and other destinations between Alaska and Tierra del Fuego.

…. and until we next meet …..

 

Moonset over the slopes of Volcán Pichincha. photo © Lorraine Caputo

 

NEW LITERARY EXPRESSIONS

“Moonset” and “Horizon” in River Poets Journal (April 2018)

“As If a Dream,” “One Hundred Moments of Solitude” and “Transmutation,” in Eos: The Creative Context (12 April 2018)

 

Also during these past few months, I have had the opportunity to translate more works by the renowned Uruguayan poet Cristina Cabral. Although the six translations are not available as yet, the poems (in the original Spanish) appear in her new collection.

Telaraña: Ecos y sonidos de la Afro Diaspora (Spanish Edition)

 

Galápagos Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias). photo © Lorraine Caputo

 

NEW TRAVEL EXPRESSIONS

AndesTransit

12 Fun and Free Things to Do in Santiago de Chile

 

Insider’s Galapagos / Galapagos Travel Planner

Masters of the Sea – Sharks of the Galapagos Islands

Galapagos Islands Meets El Niño and La Niña

 

If you are in need of an article, translation – or a dissertation proofread, please feel free to contact me. I am also available to participate in literary events.

REFLECTIONS

Often – too often – I hurry about daily life, rushing to projects and appointments and errands. Winding through crowded streets on Saturday, buying fresh beans from women shelling on the street. From another anciana, a large bag of carrots, some onions, green beans, tomatoes.

Rushing and rushing, pulling a coin out for the one man band who occasionally staggers down the street, a toilet bulb beating the drum upon his back as he plays a zampoña. A coin for the blind man who plays his accordion, stopping long enough to write a poem.

 

THE BLIND BUSKER

On this side street

behind the president’s palace

with an occasional bus

fuming by

 

he sits playing

a wheezing accordion

off-key singing a pasillo

 

passers-by divert

to the other side

or divert to him

to drop a coin

 

in his green plastic bowl

chained to one ankle

against theft

 

& they move on …

 

I drop a coin

& stop to listen …

 

… to listen …

 

& write this poem

 

© Lorraine Caputo

 

“On this side street …” photo © Lorraine Caputo

 

Or I hide away in my room up on the terrace seeking refuge from the torrential afternoon rain that come in this season. Thick drops and perhaps hail pelt the tin roof. The wind blows like a hurricane. Frequent lightning is so sharp and its thunder so throaty at this high altitude.

And not often enough do I stop to appreciate the view from my privileged spot about the historic heart of the city.

Oh, sure, I’ll watch the action on the streets below – tourists lost in this off-the-beaten-track neighborhood, families running to catch the bus rocking down the cobblestones.

At times I do lift my gaze to the hills surrounding this valley where ticky-tacky houses stack one upon the other in multicolored hues. Perhaps after an afternoon storm, a rainbow will arc over the eastern horizon.

 

Sometimes afternoon the storm passes, a rainbow arcs over the east where, beyond the hills, the jungle lies. photo © Lorraine Caputo

 

Though I admit – I do not stop to smell the proverbial roses frequently enough.

At time some aperture does catch my mind. What worlds, what lives lay beyond them that door left ajar? Windows are another fascinating opening into other lives and worlds … but they also reflect the world around us.

Across the way from this terrace is a colonial-era house. On the second floor are with large, shuttered doors which lead out to balconies. In the late afternoon, their windows capture the world beyond, reflecting the city … calling my attention to some facet that I neglect to SEE in the course of daily life.

I am reminded of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: We see reality only as shadows upon the smooth rock walls.

Ay, but if we turn around to SEE the source of those shadows … If I turn around to see those mountains, the clouds flowing over them, those houses ….

To celebrate May is National Photograph Month, let us watch the reflections those windows.

Safe Journeys!

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