Live Encounters Poetry & Writing August 2025
Planting, poems by Alicia Viguer-Espert.
Planting
I listen to crows
when I walk under the chestnut trees,
repeating my name like an incantation.
Sometimes, we make eye contact,
share clouds, – our sacred chuppah, –
meditate on our experiences in the planet.
Breeze braids their voices with pine needles,
songs of colorful more musical birds,
and a sky clear like a champagne flute.
April arrived, enigmatic perfum from orange
blossoms reach my heart like fever.
By the open-door light embraces every nook.
In silence, the earth hums loudly,
my chest expands to the yonder horizon,
a whole universe arranges inside my chest.
I want to gather my noblest sentiments
group them into batches, like rice, plant them
in the flooded soil, and whisper to them: “grow!”
Power
I follow the turning
coppery brown of its back,
golden on the wings’ underside,
claws landing next to me on the railing.
Too close for comfort.
Those nail-like eyes fixed on me,
bent neck to better listen
to my pounding heart.
The majestic chest of a king
imposing silence,
death to small creatures,
I’m too awe to move.
I breathe slowly
to befriend something,
not a companion
but a reminder
of the power of effortless
union with everything on the sky
and the hawk’s s ability
to achieve stillness.
I Ask for Quiet
Give me the space
birds take for granted
even on broken branches.
The olive tree withstands wind
loudly scrapping branches
with bullet-train-speed.
Down the road, sitting on a rock
I dream of holding opposite universes
in both hands, create a pathway
for the mind to heal shattered hearts.
It’s tempting to stop combing my hair,
abandon disentangling errors for later,
forget about opposite universes,
oceanic depths where, some say, pearls hide.
Scent from roses misdirects my steeps,
a dove, witness of eternity, ponders
about human struggles, leaning on the sill
of a mind filled with karmic debris.
Astral doors open in invitation,
I listen to its music, get distracted
on purpose I write my indecision
on sand more luminous than gold.
I’m determined to hear bells,
ignore flaming birds of seduction,
dismiss calling shouts from the dance.
It’s time to open my hands to gather
the silent rain calling my name.
© Alicia Viguer-Espert
Alicia Viguer-Espert, born and raised in Valencia, Spain is a three-times Pushcart nominee.
Winner of the San Gabriel Valley Poetry Festival (2017) with her chapbook “Holding a Hummingbird.” Two chapbooks, “Out of the Blue Womb of the Sea” (2020) and “Four in 1” (2022) are published by Four Feather Press. She has published at Panoply, Amethyst Review, Lummox, Altadena Poetry Review, Odyssey, Sin Cesar, Live Encounters, Galway Review, and Thimble among others. Panelist for “Writing from Our Immigrant Hearts,” presented at: LifeFest in the Dena Pasadena (2023), Avenue 50 Studio, Los Angeles (2023), San Diego Writers Festival, San Diego (2024), Burbank Buena Vista Library, Burbank (2024), Eagle Rock Library, Los Angeles (2024)