this change of name (to celebrate Vancouver’s 125th year and my soon-to-have Canadian citizenship for One Shot Wednesday)
it is
a matter of spelling
only
this change of name
or am i fooling
the skies i look up to
the clouds
none i can name
the mountains
that shimmer
stealing in in stead
the names
of mountain ranges
facing East
among its jungles
my spirit roosts
alien snow
now smoothers
my laughter
i drift aground
is earth
unlike the sun
untouched
by sorrow?
i hear
from mourning doves
the language
of dawns
i mismatch
evening clouds
in my dreams
the chill stays
yet the sparrow
shares its songs
that seep into my sleep
lull my world
i regain my name
on Hollyburn
where a lotus by itself
on the lake
such poignancy
mirorring my loneliness
soaks the sun
as if enough
i trail the buds
lined along the Fraser’s North Arm
winding down and up
the river bed
the tide cuts a line
between my dreams and the sky
ripples catch my breathing
in rhythmic sighs
i’m scaling the breast
of Burnaby Mounains
my soul resists
its longings
i’m close to home
close to sinking
in the foam
skirting Horseshoe Bay
an eagle skims
my rhyming
my longings weave
in and out of the air
on a skein
of cherry blossoms
once only paintings on scrolls
i learn to haiku
thinking of moths
in my childhood those slivers of light
that die on the light
and fade in the morning
on my waking
i am who has always been
the city aground on my steps
whose name i can now say
even in sleep–
Vancouver
copyright (c) by Alegria Imperial 2011
Written for Vancouver’s 125th anniversary (supposedly for a poetry collection but whose deadline I missed, and also in celebration of my soon-to-be Canaadian citizenship–I’m taking my oath in a few days, after four years of my arrival as immigrant). Posted for One Shot Wednesday at One Stop Poetry, the inimitable gathering place for poets and artists. Come share your art and check out a great number of terrific lines from other poets.
Congratulations, Alegria, and a lovely poem. I wish I could immigrate up there, but they don’t take old, poor American horticulturists with no advanced college degree. Oh, well. I can enjoy it vicariously through your work.Esp liked
i hear
from mourning doves
the language
of dawns
Thank you, Joy! Why not try to come up here and see if you like it. Apparently, there’s a lot of artists especially here in BC, in the islands in partiucular like Gabriola. Check it out. I’d be thrilled!
Congratulations on your citizenship, Alegria! How exciting!
I love this:
i’m close to home
close to sinking
in the foam
skirting Horseshoe Bay
Thanks, Melissa! And thanks for loving those stanzas in my poem–uplifting from you!!!
what a beautiful ode to a wonderful city..though i’ve never been there, you made me see it..and congrats…that’s great
Thanks, Claudia! Thanks, too, for seeing an ‘ode’ in my poem!
Congrats! Canada is a great place but its also my adopted home. Nothing still feels like home though~
Nice to meet you ~
Thank you! And nice meeting you, too!
goodness you write with such beauty…i take much strength from such mountains and hope to one day scale those myself or at least see them…lovely…
And goodness, you see so much wonder in what I write that feels like ‘nourishment’! Yes, please do tell me when you decide to come scale those mountains, many mountains here!
Deference to post author, some superb information . “It’s always too early to quit.” by Norman Vincent Peale.